Chapter 25
Disclaimer: So, I still don't own PJO, but I give you my word that my top lawyers are on the case, negotiating with Disney. My offer stands firm at $5, but I'm not sure they'll go for it… But anyway.
Percy woke up in Olympus' version of a hospital. The first thing he registered was darkness, which already gave him a good amount of hope. No building run by Apollo would be dark in any way, so if he couldn't see anything, it meant that his eyelids were closed. Which meant that he had eyelids again. Which gave him hope for the rest.
The next thing he registered was the crushing pain that enveloped his entire body. He wasn't sure how long it had been since the battle. But all the wounds hadn't healed all the way. A few of them barely even felt better at all. His throat had been pretty badly crushed during the battle and his nose had been completely broken, which meant that each breath hurt horribly. His entire midsection still burned in horrible pain. He'd had a lot of broken ribs, but they'd never been shattered so thoroughly. Never in his life. They barely felt any better than they had at the time.
His ankle felt a little bit better, but not much. He wasn't sure about the status of his hair, but his scalp still burned mildly. His knees were killing him, and so were his elbows. The Giants had taken great care to completely shatter all of his joints.
He felt his tongue in his mouth, which was a relief. He wasn't going to have to spend the rest of his life mute. He used it to feel around his mouth for teeth. He felt them, but they weren't like normal. They were growing in. Apparently, Chaos' blessing made him regenerate his teeth, and the process wasn't done yet. It wasn't pleasant.
But he felt another sensation. One that was completely different from the others. It was actually quite nice. Something was gently stroking his forehead. Something soft and gentle. Something loving.
He managed to force his eyes open to take a look. He couldn't see too well. But he forced himself to look and saw a small, lithe body sitting on his hospital bed. The figure, who he couldn't quite make out yet, was stroking his hair. He made an effort to make his vision clear, and saw that the figure had very long blonde hair. He thought he saw the remnants of a kind smile on the figure's face. The hand stroking his face was so gentle, he almost thought he was imagining it. But he wasn't. It was just so soft and tender. And he knew who she was.
Seeing that his eyes were open, Sara moved a little bit closer to him. She left a gentle kiss on his forehead. Once she pulled back a little bit, he could see that her lips were moving. She was speaking, but he couldn't hear a word. His ears weren't fully healed. He might have been able to read her lips, but his eyes were still pretty hazy. He could barely even recognize Sara.
He took a second to look around the room as best as he could. He saw a small figure with red hair curled up in a chair in the corner of the room. He could tell that the figure was female, with a compact, athletic body. Artemis, he figured. He couldn't see her too clearly, but he was fairly certain that her eyes were closed. She was asleep.
He looked back at Sara. She was still stroking his face gently. From what he could tell, she looked concerned. He tried to speak. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to say, but if he really was face to face with Sara, he wanted to say something. But he couldn't, because of the damage to his throat. He was seriously starting to wonder how long it had been. Sara saw that he was trying to speak, and shushed him. She said something else, but he couldn't hear her.
He started getting woozy again. His already blurry vision zoned out even more, and he felt himself losing consciousness. He tried to speak again, but there was still no effect. At most, he might have made a low groaning sound. Hardly the start of an intelligent conversation. Sara gave him one more look of concern, before he noticed the door on the side of hte room swing open. He swivelled his head over to look at it, and saw Apollo walking in, looking at a chart. Percy turned his head back to where Sara had been, but she wasn't there.
Apollo noticed that his eyes were open and ran over to him. Percy saw his lips moving, as he asked all kinds of questions about how he was feeling, but Percy couldn't register any of them. His vision started getting dimmer and dimmer, and then his eyes were closed. And then he was unconscious again.
—-
When Percy woke up again, he already felt better than last time. His head felt clearer. He was still in a considerable amount of pain, but it was far more manageable. He could breath without being in pain anymore, so that was a big advantage right there. His eyes were much more focused than they had been. His ribs still hurt, but it was obvious that they had healed a lot. Same with most of the bones in his body.
The first thing he did once his eyes were open, was to look for Sara. He couldn't see her in the room. He noticed that he could hear the rhythmic beeping of a monitor next to his bed, which meant that his eardrums were restored. He tried to cast his senses throughout the building, as he had done countless times before, but he couldn't. That worried him slightly.
He noticed that his room was very colorful. There were mountains of flowers bunched up on every surface. He had to admit, he wasn't entirely sure what that was about, or why they were there, but he supposed he didn't mind them. They were nice. Olympian flowers were typically more beautiful than anything he had ever seen on Earth. Demeter must have been overjoyed. She was bound to be one rich Goddess after so much business at her stores.
Artemis was curled up in a chair in the corner of the room. She was awake thistime, reading a book. He couldn't quite make out the title from where he was. His eyes must not have been back to their usual standards either. But he didn't need his enhanced senses to see the oily buildup in her hair. She apparently hadn't showered in a while. In fact, she didn't look too good at all. She had dark bags under her eyes, and her bottom lip was cracked, like she had been chewing on it non-stop. And, right on cue, she bit her bottom lip. She was frowning. Not at him though. She still hadn't noticed that he was awake. She was frowning at the book. He got even more curious as to what she was reading.
He turned away from her and checked himself over. He raised a hand to his face and felt a good-sized beard. He raised an eyebrow at that. Then he ran a hand through his hair and felt that it was a lot longer, but still clean. Apparently, bathing was protocol in Apollo's hospital, but haircuts weren't.
His movements caught Artemis' attention. Her eyes widened and she dashed across the room in a split second. She started examining him, checking him over as if she was checking on a simple cut, rather than an entire body-full of extensive injuries. He waved her off mildly, and tried speaking.
"How long…?" he managed to croak out. Speaking still wasn't easy.
"Nevermind that, how do you feel? Do you need anything?"
He considered her question for a moment.
"Water?" he croaked.
She walked over to a small tray left on a table next to the chair she had been on, where there was a big glass jug of water, and a few glasses. One of the glasses was half-full (or half-empty, depending). She filled up one of the clean ones and brought it back for him. He took it gratefully and downed the whole thing in one go. He held it back out for her.
"More?"
She gave him a small smile and refilled it for him. He drank it slower that time. She watched him while he sipped at it. She looked pretty concerned.
"You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a few days now. You seem to be pretty lucid this time though…" she said while he drank.
"I don't remember being awake. At least, not for a while. I thought I was awake at some point a little while ago. Before I had healed as much."
She nodded, "Apollo told us that was to be expected."
He nodded, "How long?" he asked again.
She shuffled slightly awkwardly, "Percy, I don't think that's important right now. Why don't you just focus on getting better?"
"Artemis," he warned.
"Perseus," she replied in the same exact tone, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow.
"If you don't tell me, I'm going to have to get up and ask someone else," he told her.
"I would be very very interested to see you try that," she told him.
Not one to back down from a challenge, he started getting up off the bed, and instantly, she was by his side, pushing him back down.
"Ok, ok, fine! Damn stubborn male," she grumbled under her breath.
He held back the victorious smirk and laid back down. He wasn't entirely sure what he would have done had she not folded. He knew he wasn't able to get up and walk around. He had bet it all on her sympathy for him at that moment.
She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts for a while. She looked like she was trying to find the best way to tell him. That did nothing to put him at ease. If it was that much of a struggle for her to tell him, it wasn't good news, that was for damn sure.
"Nearly 5 weeks," she said quietly, not making eye contact.
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
"5 weeks!?" he shouted as loudly as his damaged throat would let him.
She sighed out through her nose and nodded.
He sat back and thought about the implications of that for a few moments. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. 5 weeks was a long time to be unconscious.
"How is everyone?"
She sighed, and sat down against his bed, "Better than you. Thalia woke up a few hours after everything went down. She's been tearing her hair out, worrying about you. You managed to get everyone out without a scratch."
"And everyone else that came for me?"
"They're all ok," she told him reassuringly.
"Really? They managed to take all the Giants?"
"Not even close. The moment Apollo got you out of there, we all flashed away. I personally made sure all of your friends got out ok, and dropped them back off at Camp Jupiter."
Percy took a few seconds to absorb that. Everyone was ok. No one was hurt.
"What about the Giants?"
Artemis shook her head, "No one's seen or heard anything about them since then," she said sadly.
He clenched his jaw. He was fairly certain that he was going to have a new life mission as soon as he was released from the recovery ward.
"So, what happened after you flashed away?"
"Well, first of all, I didn't get far."
He raised an eyebrow and motioned for her to carry on.
"I didn't try to get as far away as I could. Not at first, at least. I just flashed to the top of the wall, I watched you sprint inside, and I saw the hunters shadow travel away, through the window. I just assumed you were with them, so then I flashed half-way across the country. I gave it a second, and then Iris-Messaged the hunters. They told me what happened, so I summoned the council, gave them a run-down of the situation, and then they were ready to go in a matter of seconds. I used the time to find your friends at Camp Jupiter, and told them what was going on. They were ready to join us in a heartbeat, so I brought them to Olympus, and we all flashed to you from there."
Percy nodded. That all sounded reasonable to him.
"Alright. Hey, this might sound a bit strange, but have I had any visitors while I've been here?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Of course you have!"
"Really?"
"Well, obviously! You're the Hero of Olympus, twice over. Most of Olympus has been here to see you and wish you well. Thalia has spent a lot of time here. Your friends have been running in and out, but they're all pretty busy. They've still all found time to check up on you at least once a day. Naturally, Apollo has been in here a lot. So has your father. Aphrodite too, and I'm going to have to talk to you about that later. Hephaestus and Hermes have been checking in on you sporadically. Hestia spent the first week sitting in here with you. Hades came by once, to make sure you were ok. Even Phoebe spent about an hour up here with you. All the hunters did."
That last one surprised him more than anything, but he still hadn't heard the name he was looking for.
"Ok. Anyone else?"
She blinked at him, "Well, as I said, most of Olympus has been through here. You're kind of famous around here."
"I mean someone in particular."
She furrowed her eyebrows, "I can't think of anyone else you would know by name."
"You haven't seen Sara in here?"
"Sara? No, I haven't seen her since things ended between you two. Why? Did you see her?"
"I thought I did. Now I'm starting to think I was hallucinating."
"That's entirely possible," she said gently, "Apollo said you had an extremely severe concussion when he brought you here."
"Yeah," he said, rubbing his temple gently, "I can tell."
They sat in silence for a few moments before he had a thought.
"You need to bring me my laptop. I have to find out what's going on with my mission."
She raised an eyebrow.
"You're worried about your mission right now?" she asked incredulously.
"Of course I am. What am I supposed to be worried about?"
She threw up her hands to the sky in a helpless gesture.
"I don't know, maybe your health?"
He shrugged, "That'll sort itself out. One of my abilities is a healing power. I'll be right as rain before long."
She took another deep breath, like she was holding back extreme annoyance.
"You are not going anywhere! You are not doing anything! You need to heal."
"Oh, please! I'm basically healed already. I've got work to do."
"Percy, you nearly died!" she shouted at him.
That shut him up.
The second she said it, she seemed to regret it. Her eyes fell to the floor and she swallowed heavily.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, a few seconds later.
He didn't say anything.
"But you know I'm right. You won't be any good to anyone if you're dead," she reminded him.
Neither of them said anything for a while. Eventually, Percy spoke again.
"What are you reading?"
Her shoulders slumped and her eyes narrowed.
"The Notebook," she ground out.
His eyebrow went up and he felt the corners of his mouth rising.
"I'm sorry… what?"
She crossed her arms and looked away, pouting.
"Yeah," she forced out.
He couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. She swiveled her head around to him and glared like he had just flicked her on the forehead.
"I'm sorry, it's just… why are you reading The Notebook?"
"I lost a bet," she replied miserably.
He clasped a hand over his mouth.
"To who?" he asked, doing his best to keep the laugher out of his voice.
"Apollo," she said in the same tone as before.
He just burst out laughing. She gave him the worst glare he had ever seen, but that only made him laugh harder. After a few moments, she softened her gaze and just looked at him with plain amusement.
"He said that I might as well have something to read since I was spending so much time here, and he gave me this," she said, gesturing to the book like it was the source of all of the suffering in the universe, "I thought it would be pretty good! The title made it sound like a story about a student, you know? I thought it might have been a biography of Marie Curie, or someone like her! I thanked him for giving it to me! Then I started reading it, and saw that I had been… Bamboozled!" she told him.
There were tears of laughter streaming out of his eyes by that point. And Artemis was laughing right along with him. She had seen the funny side of it, like him. And more than that, she was relieved that he was ok. She'd been worried about him.
"Where… Oh, dear Gods… Where did you learn that word?" he gasped out.
"Which word?"
He took another second to collect himself.
"Bamboozled!" he laughed.
"Oh," she said as her eyes darkened and she started a thousand-yard-stare off into the distance, "I've lost a lot of bets to Apollo over the years," she said miserably.
He snickered at her, making her look at him defensively.
"Hey! He's lost wayyyy more bets than I have!"
"Yeah, sure!"
"He has!" she told him, sounding more and more like a child.
"Right, yeah, I totally believe you."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Oh yeah? This one time, he lost a bet and I made him attend a council meeting, wearing a pretty pink princess costume!"
His eyes went wide, "Nooo," he said, drawing it out.
"Mhm," she replied, clearly proud of herself.
"I don't believe you!"
She summoned a picture and showed it to him. Sure enough, it was the God of the Sun, sitting on his throne, arms crossed, cheeks sparkling with glitter, holding a pink plastic wand, glaring at something off in the distance. The FOV of the picture was wide enough that Artemis was also visible. She was grinning like the cat that ate the canary. He realized he had never seen her smile so widely in all the time he had spent around her. She was visibly very proud of herself, and Percy saw no reason for her not to be.
He actually guffawed at the picture, while Artemis grinned at him.
Just then, the man of the hour himself, Apollo walked into the room. He only made the laughter worse, though he didn't know why. Artemis put the picture away and smiled innocently at her twin brother. Apollo, as the God of lies, instantly knew something was up. He narrowed his eyes at his auburn-haired twin, whose innocent smile only widened. Apollo tilted his head to the side, and Artemis matched him. Clearly, it was some kind of common thing for them. Apollo tortured Artemis by calling her 'Arty' and that kind of stuff, and Artemis, from what Percy could tell, was pretty competitive by nature. She wasn't about to take it lying down.
Eventually, Apollo's eyes drifted over to Percy, who waved at him. The God looked relieved to see his cousin awake.
"Hey, Perce! How are you feeling?"
"Better, actually. Though I think my hearing still has a long way to go," he said, becoming concerned towards the end. He hadn't even realized that he hadn't heard Apollo coming. He'd been too busy laughing with Artemis to notice before then.
Apollo looked concerned too, "Really? Do we sound muffled?" he asked, gesturing to himself and Artemis.
"Not quite, I can hear you both fine in here," Percy told him.
The God of healing looked confused.
"I'm not sure what you mean then?"
Percy sighed and started telling Apollo all about just how powerful his senses really were. The longer he spoke, the wider Apollo's eyes went.
"Ok… I think I get it. Are all of your senses as dulled as your hearing?" Apollo asked in a surprisingly professional sense. Percy had expected him to be a lot more excited by the news, but apparently, he was capable of being serious when he needed to be. Percy liked that. Being light-hearted was great, but there was a time and a place.
"They must be. I'd have smelled your cologne the minute you walked in the building. I'd have probably also felt your walk."
"My walk?"
"Yeah. Virtually everyone has their own unique gait. I know yours, just like I know everyone's. Interestingly enough, yours and Artemis' are pretty similar. Almost identical, but you have a little more swagger and she's a little lighter. But yeah, I'd have felt it through the micro-vibrations in the floor. Not to mention the fact that you, to a minor degree, exude vitamin D."
"I do?" Apollo asked, surprised.
"Oh, yeah. Like I said, it's only minor, but it's definitely there."
"Huh," Apollo replied, clearly a little bit disturbed, "I'm not entirely sure what to do with that information."
Percy shrugged, "Fair enough."
They sat in silence for a few moments, before Apollo recovered.
"So, sis," he started brightly.
"What?" she asked warily.
"How are you liking that book I gave you?" he asked with a grin.
Artemis' eyes immediately narrowed.
"About as well as you thought I would!"
"Good, good" Apollo grinned to himself.
"Just you wait until the next time you lose a bet, bro," Artemis told him with a glare.
"I'm not gonna lose another bet for a looooong time, sis."
"We'll see about that. I can already see you at the next council meeting, wearing a magenta tutu!"
Apollo went pale.
"You wouldn't!"
Artemis leaned in closer to her twin, "Wouldn't I, Apollo? Wouldn't I? I've been watching a lot of disney movies lately, just waiting for inspiration to strike!"
It might have been his imagination, but Percy could have sworn that he heard Apollo whimper. Artemis leaned back in her chair, in satisfaction.
Percy was silent, watching the two siblings bicker. He had never seen this side of them before. Not just of the two Gods themselves, but of the Olympians in general. They were almost human. In all the different schools he had attended before his life was kicked up a few notches, he had known a lot of brother/sister duos. Apollo and Artemis were little different from any of them. At least, when it came to how they acted around each other.
Once the two were done, Apollo got up and effectively ran away. With a quick final word to Percy, he left with his tail between his legs, scared of what his sister would do to him. Percy and Artemis were left alone, but only for a few seconds. It wasn't long before Poseidon came bustling in and hugged his son hard enough to crush his newly-repaired ribs. Some time after he left, Aphrodite showed up and gave him a slightly less intense hug, and a kiss on the cheek. She flashed him a megawatt grin and told him she was glad he was ok. He wasn't entirely sure what to say, not having interacted with her too much, and just smiled and nodded. Once she left, Percy did his best to ignore Artemis' penetrating gaze.
Then his friends arrived, and they were over the moon to see that he was doing well. They told him how concerned they'd been and how glad they were that he seemed to be doing a lot better. He got a lot of hugs from the girls, and just as many bro-hugs from the guys. They all stayed for a while, and Artemis left his room before long, giving him time to catch up with his friends in private. The moment she was gone, Jason asked him a questions he seemed to have been wanting to ask for a while.
"Dude! What's going on with you and Artemis?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.
"I mean she's barely left your room in the last few weeks!"
He blinked, "Seriously?"
They all nodded.
"What about the hunters?" he asked.
"She dropped them off at camp. We're totally serious, she's pretty much been here the entire time as you. I thought you two were barely even ok with each other?"
"I mean… we've gotten a bit closer over the past few weeks, but nothing like that. I guess she just feels guilty?"
Piper shrugged at him, "That's not the vibe I was getting."
"And what exactly was that vibe, Pipes?"
She shrugged again, "I don't know what it was, but I know what it wasn't. It wasn't guilt. I would guess that she was more concerned, than anything else."
"If she was so concerned, it was probably because she was worried about what my dad would do. I love him and all, but I think we all know that he's got a bit of an edge to him."
The group nodded.
"Yes," Frank said, "As his descendant, I'm inclined to agree," he said, wisely.
They all laughed and rolled their eyes, and Percy was just glad for the change of subject.
"How are things going in New Rome?"
"Not bad," Reyna told him, "Things are pretty much running smoothly. We're getting a lot more campers nowadays. There haven't even been too many monster attacks lately. But we all know why that is."
Frank nodded, "Speaking of monsters, tell us about what happened at the camp."
"Well, Artemis heard some rumors about a monster camp we hadn't heard of, so we decided to check it out. But it wasn't a regular camp, like the ones we've cleared before. It was all the bigger monsters. Like the Minotaur, and the Hydra. Echidna and Chimera. And so on. All those. We were going to call you, but we figured we could take it by ourselves, without dragging you guys away from your jobs. Which, to be fair, we did. But after all the monsters were gone, all the Giants showed up. And I think you guys know the story from there."
His friends took some time to absorb that.
"You still should have called us," Leo said.
"Damn right, you should have!" Hazel piped up.
"Guys, guys! It's ok. Even if you guys had been there, you couldn't have made a difference. Not against that many Giants. You guys probably would have been hurt like me, if not worse."
They lapsed into silence. He was right, and none of them wanted to admit it. They'd been through so much. All of them had. And they had grown a lot, through every challenge. Every fight had been an opportunity to learn and better themselves. But there were still forces out there that could wipe them out without a second thought. When you've dedicated your entire life to making yourself as hard to kill as possible, that thought can be utterly terrifying, and quite unsettling.
It took a few seconds for them to move past that, but they did. And then they started chatting amiably, about nothing. He kind of loved that about his friends. They had the spectacular ability to talk about absolutely nothing. It was something that needed to be seen to be beheld. They went on like that for about an hour before they had to leave. One by one, or rather, two by two, the couples gave their excuses. They had meetings, and classes, and important paperwork that needed to be filed, or whatever is done with important paperwork. He couldn't blame them. They were busy, important people, who led busy and important lives. He couldn't expect them to ditch everything and wait on him, just because he had a little booboo. They had time when they had time.
Percy was left alone when they left. He hadn't been alone since he had woken up. He wasn't exactly sure what to do. He didn't have anything to do. That was a novelty for him. He didn't have access to his laptop, so he couldn't work. He couldn't train. There was no one to talk to. It was kind of unnerving. All he could do was think. And at that moment, he really didn't want to think. He would give basically anything to avoid it.
Because all he could think about was what had happened. How awful it had been. How humiliating it had been. They hadn't just beaten him. They dismantled him. They broke him. And he wasn't entirely sure if he could be put back together. His hearing had taken a hit. That much was clear. He couldn't feel anything wrong with his ears. He saw no reason for it not to be back to normal. And yet it wasn't. He tried again, and confirmed that he couldn't hear anything past the door. And he didn't know why. Same with his sense of smell. His nose was perfectly fine, his sense of smell wasn't back to what it had been. What it should have been. And he didn't know why. He took a sip of water. Before the Giants' attack, he had been able to taste each individual mineral in the water. He'd been able to tell where in the world it was from, and how fresh it was. Now it just tasted like water. And he didn't know why. Before the attack, he'd been able to separately feel each individual material that an object had been made with. But the sheets just felt like sheets. The pillow felt like a pillow. He couldn't figure out anything more than that. And he didn't know why.
His powers weren't working properly either. He couldn't explain the feeling. It was like a limb being removed. It was something that had been there for so long. Something you could move, without really thinking about it. It was a part of you. And it was gone. He kept trying to use his shadow powers, on reflex. But they wouldn't respond to him. Neither would his water powers. It was like he was calling for them, begging them to do as he wished, as they always had, but it was like talking to a wall. And he didn't know why.
Something was wrong with him. Something a lot worse than the physical injuries that were healing. Something he couldn't even identify. But if he didn't correct it, he would live out the rest of his life as some useless chump. He wouldn't be able to help anyone. Chaos wouldn't take him back into her army. He would end up living out the rest of his days in some apartment in New York. Maybe he'd make something of himself, or maybe he wouldn't. Or maybe his darling brother would swing by when he heard of Percy's condition, and just kill him. Maybe that would be a mercy. Maybe then he'd see Annabeth again, if she hadn't gone for another life. His mother too.
Percy felt pretty thirsty. Time was, he would be able to use his water powers to bring the jug to himself from across the room. Or he could have used his shadow powers to form a type of lasso or something, and bring it to him that way. He tried both methods. Neither did a thing. He tried as hard as he possibly could to make a ripple in the water jug from across the room. But he couldn't. No matter how hard he tried. He just couldn't. Swallowing thickly, he got up and walked over to the table. And then he realized he couldn't. His legs hadn't swung across the bed so that he could stand up. He tried to move them. They wouldn't budge. He felt panic jump up his throat. He tried to wiggle a toe. It wouldn't move. He tried again; tried harder. Nothing.
He sat in silence for a moment. He couldn't feel his legs. He leaned over and pressed his thumb into the top of his big toe, as hard as he could. He couldn't feel it. He tried the same with the other foot. Nothing.
He leaned back and took a deep breath.
Then he screamed loud enough for all of Olympus to hear him.
A/N: Ok, that's all for that one. Sorry for the shorter chapter, but it's still over 5 thousand words long, so I don't think that's half-bad. Hope you enjoyed reading. Let me know what you think. I always like to hear your reviews and/or PMs. Yes, I read them all. Just like the others, this chapter has been betaed by Anon516, so thanks to them for all of the quality of life improvements, and all the help with developing the story. Should be a new chapter up before TOO long. I have a feeling it'll be a long one. Stay safe everyone, and thanks again.