Chapter 16
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. We live in a cruel world.
The next two days went by in a blur. The first few hours of the first day hadn't been very eventful. Percy was still recovering, so they weren't able to engage in their usual fun activities. Instead, they simply spent their time together talking. They chatted casually, avoiding their inevitable goodbye like the plague. They didn't talk about anything profound or meaningful. Just whatever came to mind, as it came up. It was casual and fantastic. He loved talking to her. Eventually, his wounds healed enough to leave the medical room. They went straight back to her place and curled up in her bed. They didn't actually sleep together though. Instead, they carried on talking. The sound of her voice was more addicting than heroin. He didn't know how he was going to go without it for 50 long years once their two days were up.
During their conversation, he learned so much about her. She told him everything and anything. She told him about her past in so much detail, that he felt like he had actually been there with her. She was an amazing storyteller. But despite all of the detail she regaled him with, there was a part of her life that he didn't know anything about.
"Hey, Sara?" he had asked.
"Yo." she replied colorfully.
"Where were you before you joined with Chaos?"
He felt her tense up. They were in her bed, laying together with their foreheads leaning against each other. He loved the view it afforded him of her eyes. He could stare into them until his hair went grey, he would never get bored.
"You've told me about everything else. I'm just curious. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"No! No, I want to. It's just a bit tough, you know? I've never actually spoken to anyone about it."
He nodded in understanding. He brought his arm up to gently squeeze her shoulder. She took a deep breath.
"I have no idea."
He blinked.
"Sorry?"
"I have no clue. She won't give me any details, but apparently, Chaos was conducting an operation somewhere. Some planet had gone totally nuts. Genocides were being committed. Literally, billions of innocent people were being killed. Chaos sent in her forces to interject. To form some kind of resistance. She even went there personally. It was a bloodbath. Chaos had massive losses. More than she'd had in thousands of years, and more than she's had since. But they won. All of the tyrants and the warmongers were dead. The innocents were freed. And Chaos found a girl there. She was in one of the concentration camps. Her parents had been killed already. She was starving and malnourished. Chaos took pity on her and brought her back to her realm. A few thousand years later, here I am."
He was in awe. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it hadn't been that. He felt like there was nothing he could possibly say after that. There were simply no words to respond with. He had known that Chaos' army was incredibly important to Sara, but he hadn't expected the magnitude of it. Chaos' realm was the only home she had ever really known.
"I can't imagine."
She took a moment before shrugging at him. Apparently, she didn't have the word either.
"Do you remember anything?" he asked her.
"Not much. I was really little. But I get vague impressions every now and then. Sometimes I hear things when I sleep. Someone screaming. Crying. Sometimes I get certain smells. I might be out on a mission and I'll smell something that gives me the strongest sense of deja vu. It's never good. I guess it's a blessing that I don't really remember."
He felt his heart, break into pieces. She was one of the most luminous people he had ever known. It didn't seem fair that she should have such a horrible history. It truly upset him. He leaned in and kissed her. Not a hot, passionate kiss like they had shared so many times already. This was a deep, loving, caring afair. He wanted to show her that he was with her, that he cared about her, and that she wasn't alone. If he were to guess, he would say that she understood. Eventually, they pulled back.
"How about you? Tell me about Earth?"
"I've told you about Earth."
"No, I mean really tell me. Not just about wars and stuff."
He took a breath. He understood what she was asking and, given what she had just told him, it was more than fair. But it was still difficult to talk about.
"Life was always really weird over there. Growing up, I knew that there was something... different about me. When I turned 12, I finally learned why. My dad was a God. Poseidon, God of the seas. Suddenly, everything had changed. I went to this camp full of people like me. They all had a God as a parent too. But even with them, I was still different. You see, my dad hadn't had kids in a long time. I was in this camp of 200 people, and there were dozens of siblings, but I was still pretty much alone. Most of them didn't really know how to approach me. They didn't look at me as me. They looked at me and saw Poseidon's son."
She stroked his arm gently.
"That must have been really hard." she said gently.
"It was tough. Eventually, I found my people. I found this group that liked me and respected me for who I was, not who I came from. It was great. I had a bunch of great friends. And I had a girl who I loved, and who loved me. But you know how that ended."
She nodded. The story was seared into her mind ever since he had told her. The fiancee. The invisible third member of their relationship. Despite everything she had been through in her thousands of years of life, she had never been in love. Not like he had clearly been with her. And as such, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to have that person taken from her.
"You ever think about everyone else?"
He gave her a questioning look.
"You said you found friends. A group. People that loved you. I know you lost your fiance, but do you ever think about the rest of them? Do you ever wonder where they are, are how they're doing?"
He considered it. The truth was, he did. Not too often though. He tried as hard as he could to never think about anything from that part of his life. It had been so long ago. But he could still remember Jason and his brotherly affection. He could remember the look Piper would give him whenever their fiancees would go down a rabbit hole together. He remembered the embarrassed blush Frank would get whenever Hazel looked at him a certain way. He remembered the almost-evil grin that Leo would get whenever he came up with a devious idea. He remembered the way that Thalia would roll her eyes at him and call him dumb names. It was her way of showing affection. He remembered how misty-eyed Nico would get, whenever he saw someone that reminded him of Bianca. He remembered the twinkle that the Stolls would get in their eyes whenever they knew that the Aphrodite cabin was going to wake up with blue hair. He remembered how Clarisse would glare at anyone in sight, and then would immediately blush whenever she caught sight of Chris. He remembered the way Will's face would light up whenever he heard that Nico was coming back to Camp for the weekend. He remembered them all, and he missed them, but he also knew that he would break if he ever saw them again.
"I do. Every now and then, I see something or someone that reminds me of them. I miss them, but at the same time, they're kinda like reminders of better days. I'm not sure what I'd say to them if they were here."
"Fair enough. Would you even want them here though?"
"I guess I would. Like I said, they're all really great, it's just that seeing them would make me think of things that I try not to think about."
"I guess I can understand that."
They didn't talk about that anymore. The conversation was getting far too depressing. Neither of them wanted to carry on. Instead, he kissed her. She kissed back. He put a hand on her thigh. She put a hand around his neck and twisted it in his hair. He tore off her pants. She actually tore his shirt. He sometimes forgot how strong she actually was. She certainly didn't look it. He replied by biting her neck. She practically vaporized his pants. He really didn't give a shit.
The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion. It was all sex and talking and more sex and more talking. It felt like something out of a movie. Neither of them could really stand the idea of saying goodbye once the day was over, but they were determined to make the most of their limited time together.
But finally, their time came to an end. They were only forced to face reality 10 minutes before they had to start their classes. They knew that they couldn't take any more time together. They had to move on with their lives. Alone. They left her apartment together, determined to not say goodbye until the last possible moment. They went to his bunk together. He needed to change clothes and grab his notebook for the class. When they got there, he saw that it was empty. He should have expected it, but he hadn't. Everyone that had been in his bunk, had either been killed or expelled. He tensed up when they entered, and he felt Sara do the same. That place brought back unpleasant memories for them both.
He looked around the room. It seemed very different, but still the same. It was much less busy since everyone else was gone. It was just his things there. At the same time, he could still see where everything had happened. Percy had an incredible memory. Truly, magnificent. It was like his eyes were constantly recording everything in 4K, and his ears were doing the same thing. He could go back as he pleased if he needed to review something or listen to something again. It was fantastically useful for him. But it also had negative consequences. He could remember things in perfect detail, that he would give anything to forget. He could remember the exact moments when Gabe would decide to beat him senseless for no reason. He remembered how each punch had felt. He remembered holding Zoe in his arms, as she died. He remembered every horrible detail from the two wars he had fought through. He could perfectly recall every element that had plagued him and his love in Tartarus. He remembered her and his mother, lying dead in that alley.
Every time he returned to the area where something had happened, the memories of that place came surging back. Returning to his bunk, made him relive the fight. Suddenly, his knee started throbbing. A shooting pain went through his right hand. His stomach and chest began to ache. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to sleep there. He wanted to get the hell out of there. He looked over and saw that Sara was having similar thoughts. Her gaze was glued to a very specific spot on the floor. He knew what she was staring at. It had been the exact spot where she had found him, bleeding to death from a slice to his neck.
Wordlessly, he picked up his things from his footlocker, and they rode the elevator together to the classroom. He stopped them just before they walked inside.
"Sara..."
He didn't know how to finish that sentence. He simply had no clue. What could he possibly say to the woman that he loved? The woman he had to say goodbye to, long before either of them was ready. Luckily, she saved him from that.
"I know... Me too."
She put a hand on his face, gentle as can be, and kissed him softly. He kissed back. It only lasted a few seconds though. They pulled away, and each wiped a tear away. With a deep breath and a nod to each other, they walked into the class.
The first thing that hit him, were the waves of contempt. The second thing that hit him, was the fact that they were directed at him. A look around the room told him everything he needed to know. They were all beyond pissed, glaring at him as if he had just kicked their puppy. It didn't take him long to figure out why. He had murdered some of their fellow recruits, and he had gotten a bunch of others kicked out. He doubted they would care that they had attacked him first.
The rest of the recruits all seemed to have some kind of connection. None of them were friends with any other, but there was a certain understanding between them all. A kind of respect. That respect was lost to Percy. They all viewed him as gutter trash. It was quite possibly, the one thing to unite them together. Their mutual hatred of him. So, when they had learned that he had been responsible for the deaths and expulsions of a few of their comrades, they had been quick to blame him. The fact that he had lived their fantasy of sleeping with the stunningly beautiful blonde instructor, only intensified that.
Walking into the room, he felt a shiver run down his spine, but he fought to suppress it. He knew that showing any sign of weakness would end terribly for him. He was suddenly glad that he was going to get extra training from Chaos herself. He felt like it was going to come in handy.
He took a seat at the front of the class, like usual. He knew that he wouldn't be in direct danger there. He also knew that things were going to become nightmarish as soon as sparring started. He was going to have to watch his back. If he didn't, he might just find a blade buried in the base of his skull.
"Sorry, instructor, guess I slipped" he could picture them saying with a shrug.
He needed to make sure that didn't happen. Luckily for him, he had been training with that group for over 5 years. He knew their habits and routines. He knew them all very well. The better he knew them, the more efficiently he could counter them.
The classes went by unremarkably. He was still very good at everything, though it was difficult to co-exist with Sara. The mere sight of her was enough to make his knees go weak. He was going to have to make sure to block her out when the time for sparring came. If he died because he was distracted by her, he would never forgive himself.
By the time the physical training started, he was on edge. He had just spent 6 whole hours, feeling their hatred for him. It had just been simmering and stewing. He knew that he was about to get pushed pretty hard. The exercise portion went well enough. There were a few accidents, however. A few free weights had been dropped. Funnily enough, they had been dropped straight towards him. He didn't comment on it though. He just moved on.
When they started sparring, he made sure to watch his back. All of his opponents were utterly relentless. They came at him like killing machines. Thankfully, Sara was around to keep things from getting too egregious, but there were several instances where she hadn't been looking.
When unarmed combat had ended, he was covered in bruises. He knew they would fade fast, but he wasn't looking forward to armed close-quarters training. Knives. He was going to get slashed to absolute shit. And his worries were confirmed. Again, all of his opponents went for him, hardcore. It was as if they were trying to kill him. They may well have been. He certainly couldn't rule out the possibility.
But it came to an end. Eventually. He practically collapsed as soon as it was over. He heard mocking laughter surround him. He knew it was all directed at him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He was just glad to have survived. Thankfully, when it came time for firearms training, he was able to go solo. He had no one to fight against. It was just him, his gun, and the targets. It went quite well. Pretty typical. The same went for the obstacle course, though he knew that his opponents were trying especially hard to beat him. They still didn't come close.
Once he was done with his regular training, he walked to the main building. He rode the elevator up to Chaos' office and saw her sitting behind her desk. She looked up at him when he entered and smiled.
"Hi, Percy. How's it going?"
"Not the best. It seems everyone hates me."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Wasn't that already the case?"
"Thanks." he replied dryly
"You are more than welcome, sweetheart!" she told him cheerily.
She got up from her chair and walked over to the other side of her desk.
"Stand up."
He stood up. She reached over and put a hand on his forearm. He blinked and suddenly, they were somewhere else. They were in a massive field. There was nothing to be seen anywhere. Just grass and sky and sun. It was picturesque. He could easily imagine several cows munching on the grass somewhere in the area. But Chaos had said that she had total control of the pocket dimensions that she created, and he doubted she would have gone through the effort to add cows.
"Welcome to a pocket dimension."
"Does it have a name?"
"A name?" she said incredulously.
"Sure."
She hesitated for a moment.
"No..." she said as if he had asked if the sky was green.
He just nodded. She shook her head slightly as if physically shaking out the thoughts that she had just had, and turned to him.
"We're here to train. Here, I will teach you how to use all of your senses to the fullest, as well as train you in the use of your shadow powers, as soon as you get them, and I will also help you with armed and unarmed combat. Time here passes roughly 10 times slower. We will spend the next 15 hours training. After that, we'll return to the normal world, you can sleep for an hour and a half, and then you start your usual schedule again. We'll train 6 days on, 1 day off."
His eyes went wide. That was insane. He was going to be busy. At the same time, he was supremely glad for it. He knew that his skills were going to shoot through the roof because of the new program. It would come at the cost of his sleep, but he was willing to make the sacrifice. He took a deep breath.
"Ok. Let's get started?"
10 years later.
The last 10 years had done wonders for Percy. He had already been quite threatening, but his time with Chaos had taken him to a whole new level. There were few left who could challenge him. Most of the recruits were simply unable to keep up. He had already skipped ahead an extra 40 years in his main training. All due to his evenings with Chaos. He had 100 years left of his normal training, but he knew that Chaos would make it far less. She had estimated 50 years when they had started. It had already been 10, so he could expect the 100-year estimate to be reduced to 40.
He had learned things with her that he never would have thought possible. She taught him how to use his senses to the fullest. It had become so easy. He could effortlessly track people with their scents. He had finally learned to distinguish between unique heartbeats. His scope had become massive, allowing him to listen to conversations several miles away with crystal clarity. It was an odd feeling to get used to, but he had adjusted.
There hadn't been very much to learn about healing since it wasn't a conscious power. He healed passively. But he learned that he had a degree of control over it. If he so desired, he could turn it off. He couldn't imagine a situation where that would be helpful, but he was still glad for the extra control.
Chaos had also helped him with something that he had been neglecting far too much ever since he had arrived in her realm. His powers from his dad. He hadn't fully realized how much he had been ignoring them. He had almost forgotten that he even had them. The only time that he had actually called on his powers ever since he'd arrived in her realm, was when he'd been on his mission. Chaos' army didn't take very kindly to demigods, so they weren't equipped to train them in the use of their powers. But Chaos was more than equipped. She taught him things about his powers that astounded him. His control over water had grown to a massive degree. He felt like he could lift the Mediterranean sea without breaking a sweat. Whether that was true or not remained to be seen, but he was somewhat eager to find out. Along with manipulating water, he learned how to control its temperature. It was an invaluable skill to add to his repertoire. The ability to throw water at someone and boil it mid-air, making it burn them on impact, was simply amazing. As was the ability to cover someone in water from head to toe, and then freeze it. He could virtually freeze opponents like that. Of course, not literally. It was enough to slow down an opponent, but not enough to stop them entirely.
His combat skills had flourished. If he had been impressive before, there was no comparison. He had mostly given up on sparring with any of the recruits. Instead, he trained with the instructors. They still kicked his ass most of the time, but he was doing far better against them. The fights weren't exactly even, but they were moderately close. He landed several hits each time. The main asset to his fighting style wasn't his strength; it was his speed. He was incredibly quick and agile. There were several recruits and trainers who could move at the speed of sound due to their species, and Percy was nowhere near that kind of speed, but he was the fastest of the other recruits.
When he woke up in the morning, he was excited. He was going to get Chaos's third blessing. Originally, she had told him that he would likely be waiting for decades to get it, but he was ready even earlier. He was glad. If he was adjusting to the blessings so well, then he would almost certainly get the 5th, which would be supremely useful. Perhaps he would even get the 6th, though he didn't hold out too much hope.
He got out of bed in his empty bunk. It was still sort of startling to him that he had the entire bunk to himself. It was a room equipped for 10 people, but he was alone. He knew that more recruits were coming in, but none of them were placed with him. He wasn't sure if Chaos had specifically made that be, but he wasn't going to complain. He rather liked being alone. Ever since he had said goodbye to Sara, he had become even more anti-social. He had hoped to stay friends with her, even if they couldn't be together, but his new schedule kept him far too busy to do anything except train and sleep. He just pushed himself onwards and reminded himself what he was doing it all for.
He got dressed and took the elevator up to Chaos' office. He found her behind her desk like she always was. She looked up when she saw him and smirked.
"Is it that time already?" she asked as if she didn't know.
"You know it is. Let me just ask now, how much is this gonna hurt?"
"Not quite as bad as the second one, but still pretty awful."
He nodded.
"Fair enough. Let's get started?"
"Sure. Just so you're aware, you're not going to have the day off after this."
"I'm not?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. He had always had the day off after a blessing before.
"Nope. I'm taking the day off my duties, and we're going to spend 40 hours straight in a pocket dimension."
His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
"40 hours!?"
"Yep. I want you to have a good grip on these powers straight away. And after today, our usual sessions are going from 15 hours a day, to 20."
"Fucking Christ, Chaos!"
"You want to be the best, this is the price you pay."
He remained silent for a long moment. He did want to be the best. He wanted to be the absolute best version of himself. If he was anything less, then it could cost lives. Lives which he could save if he'd been better. He took a deep breath through his nose.
"You're right. Anyway, let's do this?"
"Let's."
He sat down in the chair opposite her, she reached over her desk to place her hands on his temple, and he felt a massive surge of pain. He handled it better that time, since he had become far more accustomed to pain than he had been previously, but it was still a hell of a lot. He struggled to hold onto consciousness. He had passed out when he'd received the second blessing, and Chaos had said that the third would be slightly better, so he was determined to stay awake.
After what felt like a lifetime, the pain subsided. He felt amazing. It was like he could feel the power in his fingertips. Like it was ready to burst forth at his command. The entire room looked different too. He was still aware of all of the shadows, just like he had been before, but all of a sudden, he could see right through them. He could see everything perfectly. He knew without being told, that part of the blessing had been night vision. He didn't see everything with the green tint that was usually shown with night vision goggles, instead, he could just see normally. Like there was no darkness at all. Yet, he was still perfectly aware of all of the shadows. It was certainly going to take some getting used to. And it seemed he wasn't going to get it.
Chaos stood up and grabbed him by the arm. He blinked and suddenly they were somewhere else. But it wasn't the massive open meadow he had gotten used to over the last 10 years. Instead, he was in a city at night. With a start, he realized that it was New York. But not quite. It was empty. There were no people, no cars, no lights on anywhere. It was like New York, except the entire population had collectively decided to move away. It was eery.
"This is where we're going to train your shadow powers since there's ample opportunity here."
She was right. One detail he remembered extremely well about the city was all of the dark alleyways that he had been taught to never enter as a child. Tons of shadows to work with. He nodded.
"Fair enough."
The next 40 hours were downright painful, but they were damn effective. He was utterly exhausted by the end, but he had done good work. He felt like he already had a good amount of control over his new powers, even after gaining them so recently. He felt powerful. When Chaos brought them back to her realm, he decided to test something out.
He thanked her for her help in teaching him, closed his eyes, focused deeply on the shadows in her office, and tried to move himself down a floor to his bunk. One of the powers afforded to him was shadow travel, and he was determined to get it right. That alone made for an insanely powerful ability to have and coupled with all of the others, it became insane. But he certainly wasn't going to become one of those people that never walks anywhere anymore just because he could. This was just to test whether he could do it, or not. Regardless of the result, he would still walk places.
It worked. One of the shadows in Chaos' office swallowed him up and he was spat out one floor down, where his bunk was. He was sweating profusely and panting slightly, but he had made it. He learned something about shadow travel at that moment, that he had never known before. It was insanely uncomfortable. It felt like he was being shoved through a tin can. Every single part of himself felt like it was being compressed horribly. It left him gasping afterward. Luckily, the awful sensation only lasted a moment, but he still hated it. If he hadn't already been sure that he wasn't going to shadow travel everywhere, that just confirmed it.
Of course, he was still going to train as much as he could to adjust to it. There was no way that it was going to remain as uncomfortable as it was. Surely it had to get easier with time and practice. But he was far too tired to train. He had just been training with Chaos for 40 hours, and while that had been time well spent, he was well and truly exhausted. He showered very quickly and passed out in his bed, alone in his bunk.
He woke up when it was time for training, 20 hours later. When he did, he felt far better than he had before. The marathon sleep session had been exactly what he had needed. He felt even better than he had before. Now that he was awake, alert, and pain-free, he felt so much better. He was almost buzzing with power. Almost. At the same time, he could sense that it wasn't like that. He wasn't buzzing. The power didn't work that way. It was more like a quiet strength. Almost understated. Ironically, it reminded him of a calm, settled sea. It looked totally calm and tranquil, but it could also cause massive storms and hurricanes, and tsunamis. He felt like that was a decent comparison to how he felt. He was calm at the moment, but that could change on a dime. Not to make him furiously angry; that didn't really happen to him anymore. But he felt like he could unleash massive power at will. From 0 to 100 in no time at all.
He jumped out of bed, got dressed, and went downstairs to start his day. First, were the classes with Sara. They went reasonably well. He did everything in his power to avoid direct eye contact with her and she did the same with him. It was like they knew that looking at each other would make them come undone. He tried not to listen to her too much. He knew it was counterintuitive since she was teaching a class, but he couldn't help it. With a voice like hers, she could bring him to his knees. Unfortunately, he had to pay attention most of the time. He couldn't allow himself to be anything other than the best in her class. And that was exactly what he was. They had various exams at the end of each year, and he constantly had a perfect score.
Of course, the exams were nothing like what he had experienced in school. Instead of a pen and paper, they were examined in real-life situations. There were simulated events where they would be tasked with infiltrating a certain room without being seen or setting off an alarm, or they would be placed in a party where they needed to extract information out of someone, without them realizing what you had done. There was even an exam where you were forced to torture someone. A prisoner was taken from a mission, who had a secret. Locations of the bases of certain terrorist cells, that he was reluctant to give up. They were tasked with extracting the information from him, in any possible way. To save lives. Percy had done extremely well. The terrorist had not only given him the location of the bases, but he also gave him the dates of their next scheduled attacks and the names of the terrorists who would carry them out. All in less than an hour. Percy's instructors had been over the moon. Or at least, Sara had been. The rest were impressed but tried desperately to make sure they didn't show it. They hadn't taken kindly to him killing those recruits who had attacked him. Assholes.
There was one exam coming up that he wasn't looking forward to. The final exam for counter interrogation. After that, he was done with the class and would never have to repeat it, but the final exam was going to be brutal. To prepare them for the eventuality that they were captured, they were going to be taken prisoner and tortured for 3 days. The idea that Chaos' own troops were going to imprison and torture him for 3 days was astounding to him. He couldn't believe it. It seemed way too over-the-top. But it was necessary to join her army, so he would endure it. And he still had a month to prepare.
He reached Sara's class, walked in, took his usual seat, and waited for her to get there. As he had expected, he wasn't left waiting for very long. Sara was a creature of habit, and he knew that she always arrived at class at the exact same time. He found it endearing. He was also a creature of habit. He always arrived 30 seconds before she did. He found it was best that way. No need to awkwardly stumble into her in the halls. He was already seated and already doing everything in his power to avoid looking at her. Though he never managed that too well. She had this amazing presence. It was almost a physical thing. She compelled him to look at her when she walked into the room. He didn't feel too bad about it though. He knew everyone else was staring at her. He felt pretty food about the fact that he managed to merely glance at her, while everyone else stared. He had pretty good self-control.
The classes went quite well. Or at least, they went as well as they usually did. Afterward, they all moved on to their usual stuff. They went through a bunch of unarmed and armed combat. He spent a few minutes sparring with the recruits like he always did before the instructors pulled him away and made him train with them like they always did. He wasn't sure why they bothered making him train against the other recruits. They couldn't actually do anything to him. It wasn't as if he suddenly devolved, and they were suddenly a match for him. But he didn't complain. He knew that the instructors would only treat him worse if he did. They didn't like the fact that he was getting extra training from Chaos, so they took it out on him whenever they could.
Once he was done with the regular stuff, he went up to see Chaos so that they could start their private training. She greeted him with a grin that was a little bit wider than usual.
"What?" he asked suspiciously.
"I have a surprise for you."
That grin was turning more mischievous by the second.
"If you do well today with your shadow powers, then you're going to move up again."
He raised an eyebrow. He had been with the same group for a little over 4 years, so things were getting stale for him. The chance to move up again into something more challenging was exciting to think about. Especially since he was the only one in his current group that had the third blessing. He knew that was why she was offering to move him up. Moving into another group would mean that he was going to train with his shadow powers with the rest of his group as part of the usual training program, rather than exclusively with Chaos. One thing was for sure; he was going to blow her the fuck away in their training session. He was going to move up.
"Alright. Perfect."
"But wait! There's more!" she said in her best showman voice.
He just raised an eyebrow, contrasting with her over-excited pitch.
"How would you like to go on... another mission?!" she continued, matching the same tone as before.
That got his attention.
"Keep talking."
She grinned
"There's a terrorist organization that's emerged back on Earth. Your history there puts you in an ideal situation to deal with it. Especially considering how well you did on your interrogation exam."
He froze. His mission... was on Earth.
"Does this mean that I can finally-"
"No." she cut him off.
"NO!?" he asked incredulously.
"The time isn't right yet."
"WHY? What possible reason could there be for him to stick around?" he asked, perplexed.
Chaos took a deep breath. She looked like she was going to struggle to say what she had to say.
"Because he's useful."
He blinked.
"He's... What?"
Chaos just looked at him, resigned.
"How can that worthless sack of SHIT be USEFUL to ANYONE!?"
She looked at him sharply.
"Perseus. Do not. Take. That tone. With me." she said menacingly. He knew that he was out of line, but he was so far beyond caring.
"Not until you tell me what possible purpose that scumbag serves."
She sighed.
"I didn't want to tell you this, but... there's another war coming. I've foreseen it. I can't tell who the opponent will be, nor do I know when it will happen, but it will happen. Despite his many flaws, which I'm not denying he has, Jack is committed to training the campers. As an immortal, he's had a long time to hone his skills. He's remained at Camp Half-Blood, and he instructs the newer generations. He's actually quite good at it. The Camp is doing well, and it is, in part, due to him. So for now, you cannot kill him. He still serves a purpose."
Percy was frozen. He refused to believe that the monster that had taken everything from him, was doing good things in the world. He couldn't wrap his head around it. He didn't want him to be useful. He didn't want him to be good at things. He wanted him dead.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" he asked, but his voice lacked the malice that it had moments ago. He was resigned to the fact that he couldn't kill him.
"I wish I were, darling."
"So, I can't kill him?"
"I never said that. In fact, I said the exact opposite when you first joined."
His eyes lit up with hope.
"You mean, I'll still get to kill him one day?"
"Yes. But not until after the war. Once it's over, I'll give you the all-clear. You can kill him as slowly and painfully as you please."
The thought made him grin like a psychopath.
"Ok. Tell me more about the mission."
"You'll leave tomorrow. I estimate that you'll be there for 6 months."
"6 months? Long mission."
"There's a lot to do. The terrorist cell has branches all over the world, in some of the biggest cities. They've spread throughout the US, they're in London, Beijing, Tokyo, Madrid, Paris, and Istanbul. Your job will be to identify them and destroy their entire operation. You'll start in the US, and work your way around. You may use whatever methods you see fit."
"Holy shit. What tools do I get?"
"You'll get your special sniper. You can use a little mist to get it through airports. You'll also get a credit card with unlimited money, so your operational budget will be limitless."
"Sounds good. Though, I'll probably try to avoid airports. I know it's been a while, but I doubt Zeus will take too kindly to my presence in his domain. I'd prefer to sail anyway."
"Zeus will never know that you're there. Those methods of disguise you've learned? Hiding your heartbeat, and your body temperature, and your scent? It should be enough to keep him from finding you."
He quirked an eyebrow.
"Is that so?"
"It is. And one more thing. As much as possible, try to keep the Olympians from finding you. If you need to reveal your presence to them, then so be it, but it would be for the best if they didn't know you were there. And another thing. No matter what... they can't learn that you've been with me for so long. You cannot tell them. Nor can you tell them about the war."
The fact that he couldn't tell them that he had been with Chaos made sense. Before he had joined her, he had barely ever heard of her. No one had spoken of her as if she actually existed. They probably assumed that she had faded. She probably made them believe that. Though she had never said so explicitly, he got the impression that she didn't care for the Olympians greatly. He could understand why. He doubted that she wanted much to do with them. But the fact that he shouldn't mention the war, came as a shock to him.
"Why shouldn't I tell them about the war?"
"Since you can't tell them that you came from here, you wouldn't be able to explain how you know about it. It would only make them distrust you more. Not to mention the fact that you don't know when or with whom. Not only would they not believe you, but they would think you've lost your mind. Best to avoid that."
He nodded slowly. Her reasoning made sense to him.
"Alright, that's fair. Is there anything else I should know?"
"You'll be briefed properly on your way, this was just a quick overview. Now, let's get to training?"
"Yeah, let's do that."
A/N: Ok, there's that. Sorry that there was a bit of a wait for this one, but I'm finally kind of happy with it. Next chapter, Percy goes back to Earth, but not permanently. He still has more training to do with Chaos before he goes back for good. I just want to use this mini-trip to Earth to have him interact with a few characters, and show his competence in the outside world. Anyways, let me know what you guys think, I always read reviews and PMs. Stay safe, everyone.