The Rising Dawn

by Demititan28

Percy didn't just survive after his sacrifice, he thrived. Locked in ice for over 20 years the world he comes back to is not the one he left behind. But he doesn't have time to mourn his missed years, a threat is rising in the east and the survival of humanity is on the line. If Olympus has any hope of survival, it rests on his shoulders. Eventual Pertemis

39. I Uncover a Government Conspiracy

Chapter 39: I Uncover a Government Conspiracy

Percy fought for consciousness a few times, but each time the darkness sucked him back into the void. He vaguely remembered being carried somewhere, murmuring voices on all sides, then a hard metal chair before his senses abandoned him once more. The hit must have been harder than he had realised.

When he finally came to, everything was still black. A brief flutter of panic started in his chest before he remembered the soldiers placing a bag over his head. This was followed by a far more intense roar of panic as he realised where he was and what had occurred moments before he was knocked out.

"Annabeth!" He called out to her, but his voice hung empty in the air, only silence greeting him. He tried to stand up, only to find that heavy metal chains were keeping his legs bolted to the ground. He tried his arm and found them locked behind him with similarly thick restraints that his legs were bound by. He pondered if he could break them, but figured that if whoever had captured him wanted to do him harm they would have done so already. Besides, they had already threatened Annabeth once to get him to stand down, so he doubted they would have reservations about doing so again. Chiron's words of warning before he'd left camp echoed in his ears, and so he decided to exercise restraint. He needed to learn more about where he was and what was happening before he made any rash moves.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the US military operated on its own clock, and Percy found himself sitting in the chair, staring at the darkness for what seemed to stretch into hours. He called out to Annabeth, to the soldiers, to anyone, but all he received in response was silence. He could sense people nearby, although he wasn't quite sure how. He just knew they were there, watching from beyond the darkness that he had been condemned to.

Eventually, he settled into counting sheep, but as he passed the thousand mark his ADHD started working in overdrive. He grew twitchy and frustrated and his mind started to wander. He started thinking about Annabeth, wondering what had happened to her. Her face seemed to form in front of him, amidst the darkness. The long blonde hair was marred only by a slice of grey that so closely mirrored his own. The stormy grey eyes that provided him with his only window into her incredible mind. Her California tan gave her skin a bronze tinge that made her seem like a goddess in her own right. Those athletic legs that just seemed to keep going-

Percy cut the thought off before it went any further. While he was worried about Annabeth, there was no reason to get horny, especially considering the circumstances of his capture. And coupled with the fact that she wasn't his to covet. To be fair though, it hadn't stopped his mum from getting with his dad. The thought made him uncomfortable. He forgave himself the fact that he was also still only 18 and had been alone for over twenty years. It seemed like his hormones had finally thawed along with the rest of him.

Thankfully he was knocked out of his stupor by the sound of a soft beep and a heavy door opening. Percy calmed himself and began to concentrate, finding himself able to make out two distinct sets of footsteps entering the room. The first stepped towards him, pacing around him before stopping directly behind him. He tensed, prepared for another blow to the back of the head, but one never came. Instead, the second set of footsteps, softer than the one standing behind him, moved a chair somewhere in front of him. He heard a deep sigh from the figure in front of him and then suddenly the bag was roughly removed from his head.

He blinked back dark spots as his eyes adjusted to the harsh light of whatever room he was sitting in. When he was finally able to make out shapes he saw a figure leaving through a door on the right, only for the door to begin automatically closing after him. He blinked again, giving his eyes a moment of respite before he forced them open once more. This time, he was able to fully take in his surroundings.

He was sitting in a white room, completely devoid of decoration or personality. The right side of the room bore a metal door, with a blinking red light at the top. Along the wall in front of him was a large dark window that reflected his own face back at him. He had seen enough cop shows as a kid to know that it was a one-way mirror. The people behind it could see him, but he couldn't see them. It helped him legitimise his sense of being watched from earlier. In the top left corner of the room was a camera, firmly trained on him. A green light underneath the lens told him that it was rolling. He was sitting on a plain metal chair, bolted to the ground. Thick coils of metal wound around his legs and were embedded into the ground, and he had a sneaking suspicion his arms were in a similar bind. In front of him was a plain metal table. On the far side of the table was a stack of folders, weighed down by a dark disc, and sitting across from him, in an identical metal chair, was a man he had never seen before.

Dressed in a three-piece suit, the man was eyeing him curiously. He had short brown hair threaded with strands of grey, coupled with intense green eyes. He seemed tall, although shorter than Percy, and fairly well-built if his shoulders were anything to go by. A 5 o'clock shadow was present on his face, which along with the circles under his eyes gave the impression of a man who hadn't seen enough sleep.

"Good morning, Percy Jackson," he began, his voice tinged with a New York accent that betrayed his background, "I'm sorry that this is how we're meeting for the first time but…you did force my hand."

He reached into the coat of his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, the front of the pack depicting a blackened lung. The man eyed the picture for a moment before opening the back and retrieving one of the cigarettes from inside.

"Mind if I smoke?" the man asked, to which Percy merely raised an eyebrow, "I'll take that as a no." He reached into the other side of his coat and retrieved what looked like a miniature taser. When he clicked the button on the side a stream of electricity ran between the two end points. Percy tensed, but the man simply used the electricity stream to light his cigarette, taking a deep inhalation and leaning back in his chair. He offered the cigarette to Percy, "You want one?" he asked.

Percy shook his head, doing his best not to wince as the putrid smell filled his nostrils. The man merely shrugged and took another deep inhale, returning his fancy lighter to one of his suit coat's inner pockets. He eyed the picture on the front of the cigarette packet once more.

"Death comes for us all. It would be ironic if something as simple as cancer was what killed me all things considered. That is an ugly lung though Jesus Christ," He threw the packet on the table and turned his attention back to Percy. "You don't talk much," he said, more a statement than a question, "And here I was under the impression that you were quite the chatterbox."

"And what gave you that impression?" Percy replied, keeping his voice even and level so as not to betray any emotion.

The man smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. The man would have been handsome in his youth, but his face looked as though it was sagging under the weight of life experiences. There was a darkness there too, the look of a man who had seen far more than he'd bargained for, "I believe that would come from my conversations with our mutual friend, Mr. Valdez."

At Leo's name, Percy's eyes widened, before they narrowed accusatively at the man, suddenly on high alert once more, "Where is he?"

The man waved his hand dismissively, "Mr. Valdez is safe. You'll get to see him in time. You see…I'm less concerned with Mr. Valdez and far more concerned with you Mr. Jackson."

"And why is that?"

The man took another puff and chuckled, "Why because you're fascinating Mr. Jackson. And not least of all…we're old classmates."

Percy frowned, he hadn't recognised the man when he had first laid eyes on him, and even after scanning his face for a few moments more, the pieces still weren't clicking. He grimaced, "Sorry man, I went to a lot of schools-"

"That's putting it lightly," the man laughed. He moved the dark disc from the stack of folders, which Percy now realised was an ashtray, and reached out to one of the folders, flipping it open, "I believe that the current number stands at 9. Hmmm…I guess you could argue 8 since Merriweather Prep simply asked you not to return…ouch."

Percy's eyes flashed. His school struggles had been the biggest challenge he had faced in his younger life, and he still carried a bit of shame with him about his inability to just have a normal year at school. He wasn't thrilled with how casually this stranger was dredging up his past.

"And why does that matter?" Percy growled, tensing his muscles as he gave the chains binding him an experimental tug. They held firm, but he hadn't really put his back into it yet.

The man raised an eyebrow, "It doesn't. I'd appreciate it if you didn't break those very nice chains, the government spent a lot of money on them."

Percy's eyes flicked around the room, but white walls stared back lifelessly on all sides, "So this is Area 51," he started deciding the only way he was going to learn anything about where he was was by steering the conversation, "Kinda disappointing…I expected more aliens."

The man had been mid-drag, and when Percy spoke he sputtered out a mix of a cough and a laugh. He ashed his cigarette in the ashtray, which now sat pride of place in front of him, and released a slow breath, "Mr. Jackson, aren't aliens a bit boring compared to the things you see on a daily basis? What is an alien to the son of a god, 'ey?"

Percy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up but he did his best to keep his face a mask, "My mom might be the best mom of all time, but that doesn't make her a goddess."

The man sighed but managed a thin smile, "Sally Jackson…daughter of Jim and Estelle Jackson. Acclaimed author and once upon a time an amateur sculptor. Her piece was amazing, I've seen it for myself. It's funny, one of the figures looks awfully similar to your stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, who went missing about 25 years ago. Funny…he went missing about the same time your mother sold that sculpture. Must be one of life's silly little coincidences."

"Silly little coincidence," Percy breathed, now firmly on edge, "Why are you talking about my mother?"

The man tilted his head at Percy, frowning, "Now, now Mr. Jackson, I thought you were smarter than that. I am talking about your mother to demonstrate how much I know about you. I know quite a lot, but there are some things that remain a mystery to me, even with the mighty apparatus of the United States government doing the surveillance on my behalf. So I thought we might be able to do a trade…I give you information and in return, you give me information."

"How about you give me my friends?" Percy snapped.

The man sighed, "You and your friends were caught trespassing on a top-secret United States military base. The fact that you're not buried in some hole in the ground, never to see the light of day again, is because of me."

"And who are you?"

The man opened his arms invitingly, "My name is David Hudson. Originally from Manhattan, New York, you might be familiar with that place. Proud graduate of Goode High School, former military intelligence officer, and current director of the DESA."

Percy blanched at the name of his old high school. It could be a lie of course, but what would be the purpose of him pretending to have gone to Percy's high school? Not only that, but it was also the name of the school that Paul was now the headmaster of. His brain processed the rest of his sentence and he took a deep breath, trying to sort through everything he had said. Former military intelligence officer? Military intelligence sounded an awful lot like a spy, which was intriguing in itself. What was more interesting was that he was the director of the DESA. That had been on some of the files that Piper had stolen from the Pentagon.

"What does DESA stand for?" Percy inquired.

The self-proclaimed director of the organisation drew his finger across his throat in a threatening motion, "Don't ever speak again…" Percy frowned but David simply started chuckling, "I'm just kidding, it's a little joke we have in the organisation, we're very hush-hush at the DESA. No, DESA stands for the Department of Extraordinary and Supernatural Affairs."

Percy managed a smirk, "So aliens?"

David smiled, "I do believe aliens would fall under that category, but we're far less interested in the stars and far more preoccupied with what is happening here on Earth. Less so the extraterrestrial and more so…the divine." As he said the last couple words his eyebrow raised and he gave Percy a knowing look.

Percy was getting very concerned. He had swung Riptide at the soldier outside and it had passed straight through him, meaning the soldier had been mortal. Percy had been fairly certain going into this mission that everyone would be mortal, but the way David was looking at him now, along with all the hints he had been dropping about the gods was making him question that assumption.

"Divine?" Percy asked, feigning ignorance.

"We can play this game," David conceded, "But it would be very boring for both of us. Let me put my cards on the table."

He put his cigarette in his mouth and began sifting through the files on the desk. He picked through them until he found the five he wanted and then laid them in front of him, opening the first one and flipping it so Percy could read. It took him a couple of tries with his dyslexia but as he scanned the titles of the files his heart sank.

Peter Johnson and the Thief of Thunder

Peter Johnson and the Cursed Waters

Peter Johnson and the Weight of the World

Peter Johnson and the Maze of Monsters

Peter Johnson and the Rise of Heroes

The page that was open to him was Thief of Thunder. Inside the file were pictures and a list of handwritten notes. There were images taken during that time of Gabe, his mum, himself and a blurry picture of Ares. There was also an older woman who looked remarkably similar to Nancy Bobofit and a teacher ID card of Mr. Brunner. He started reading the handwritten notes.

Percy Jackson Appx. Age: 12

Incident at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nina Bobblefit - Nancy Bobofit (Interviewed)

Limited recollection. Labels Jackson "Troubled Kid"

States he was violent (Pushed into a fountain)

Footage from the date of the incident is blurry

Expelled from Yancy Academy

Mr. Brun - Mr. Brunner: No Information?

No evidence of teaching anywhere else

Books label him as Chiron

Disappearance of Percy and Sally Jackson

Camaro destroyed

Report of wreckage on Long Island

Camp located somewhere in the area

Surveillance stationed in the vicinity

St. Louis Arch Incident

Hotel in Vegas

Lotus Hotel and Casino

Gunfight on the beach of Santa Monica

Percy Jackson and an unknown individual

Books label Ares as the culprit

Explosion. Cause:?

Gabe Ugliano disappearance

Sally Jackson Reappearance

Sale of Sculpture in Soho

No mention in the books

Medusa mentioned, could be related

It was his life from when he was 12 years old, meticulously picked apart using his mum's own work as a guide. While all of it was terrifying the fact that they had caught onto Gabe and the sculpture had him worried for his mum. It was twenty-five years ago, but the fact of the matter was his mum had killed Gabe and used the Medusa head to do it. He had assumed very few people knew about it, but now he was sitting across from a man in the depths of the United States military apparatus who had not-so-subtly let on that he knew exactly what had happened.

"As far as hands go," David said, taking another heavy drag from his cigarette, "I'd say my cards look pretty good, wouldn't you?"

Percy was stumped. He was so confused, he had expected a lot when he had decided to break into Area 51, but he most certainly hadn't expected that they would be here waiting for him. "I don't…" he began, his voice heavy with uncertainty, "I don't know what you're trying to prove here."

David smiled, before leaning over and picking up the file, "I have a lot of questions for you Percy Jackson, and I want them answered honestly. Based on my interviews with people who know you, you can be quite difficult to get answers out of. If I had it my way, your mother would never hear the name Gabe Ugliano again. But my way includes you telling me what I want to know. If you decide you don't want to answer my questions, that's fine. New York doesn't have a Statute of Limitations on murder. I will call in some favours and I will have your mother arrested and charged with the murder of Gabe Ugliano by this time tomorrow."

Percy was silent for a moment, contemplating how genuine the threat was, "You're going to accuse her of murdering Gabe with the severed head of Medusa as the murder weapon? That could be difficult to prove in court."

David held his hands up, "You've got me there. No jury will believe that. But a jury may believe that your mother, a victim of domestic violence, poured hot concrete on her abusive husband and then sold it for profit. Especially when we have receipts of your mother purchasing the concrete and a letter to you stating what she planned to do and then another detailing what she did."

Percy frowned, "But she never did any of that."

David shrugged, "When you're the Director of the DESA…you write your own stories. I might not be as good a writer as your mother, but I'm a good enough one to get her spending the next 30 years of her life behind bars."

"How do I know you won't do it regardless of what I say?"

David rolled his eyes, "You don't, but unfortunately, you don't have much of a choice. Personally, I'm quite a fan of her work, and she does a lot for charity in the poorer areas of Manhattan. Having grown up in some of those areas myself I have an enormous amount of respect for her. But I also have a duty, and if I have to send her to prison to fulfill my duty I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Besides…it's not like she didn't do it."

Percy wanted to rip the chains off and strangle the man sitting across from him, but he figured that wouldn't help his mother's chances, "I'll talk to you, but on the condition that you never speak about my mother again. And this Gabe thing never sees the light of day."

David snapped his fingers, "Your wish is my command. Firstly I have some questions I need answering. To start with, let's go with an easy one. Do you recall being at Goode High School for your orientation before your freshman year?"

"Yes."

"An orientation that you fled?"

"I was scared of getting homework."

David smiled, "Now there's that wit I was hoping you possessed. I was wondering why you actually fled. I didn't see any monsters, it seemed like you were running from the cheerleaders."

Percy's eyes narrowed, "You were there for that?"

David took another hit of his cigarette, "Guilty. I told you I was a proud graduate of Goode High School."

At least now Percy knew that David wasn't lying about Goode, "The cheerleaders were empousa, they're like vampires."

David nodded slowly before reaching for another folder and flicking through it, "Have powers of seduction that can be used to hypnotise men…makes sense as to why I didn't see anything."

"You can see them? Monsters I mean."

"You don't work at the DESA unless you can see through the Veil."

"The Veil?" Percy asked. He was assuming that the veil meant the mist, but he wanted to test just how much David knew while giving away as little information as he had.

David frowned, "You don't call it the Veil?"

Percy shook his head, "I've never heard of the Veil before."

David sighed, "It's what your mother refers to in her books as being what separates mortals from being able to see the divine world. I'm guessing you have a different name for it?"

Percy just smiled.

"Regardless of what it's called, all members of the DESA can see through it. We can see the divine. Satyrs, nymphs…monsters."

"I wouldn't call monsters divine," Percy spat.

"We use the term divine to form a distinction between our world and yours."

"Mine?"

"You're the son of Poseidon, God of the Oceans. As his son you are granted access by your birthright to the divine world."

"If that's true, that would make me Prince of the Oceans. Shouldn't you be bowing?"

David, to his credit, stood up and gave Percy a small bow, "What can I say? I'm a great lover of pomp and ceremony. Your Highness."

"Any chance I can use my newfound power and respect to get you to take these cuffs off?"

David laughed, returning to his seat, "You already had power and you already had our respect, that's why you're in the chains in the first place. The DESA has spent considerable time and energy studying you. Your mother's books gave us a guide with which we used to begin to map out the divine world. Your mother's recollection of your life, albeit with some changes we had to decipher, finally helped the DESA off its feet. For over a century, we were a secret organisation tasked with researching the supernatural and extraterrestrial. There has been a small faction inside the United States military apparatus that has been aware of the existence of demigods since the Second World War. Clearsighted soldiers on the decks of battleships watching the ocean itself turn against them at the hands of the enemy. Pilots watching friends blasting out of the sky by lightning. Soldiers on the ground battling the dead. Most of it was written off as PTSD, and the men who served were able to convince themselves that that was all it was. But that's never all it was. When your mother's book came out we began to follow the trail of breadcrumbs she had left for us. We verified the legitimacy of the stories and matched them to our own understanding of the events that took place. We started to finally piece your world together brick by brick. And the more we uncovered, the more funding we were able to gain," He waved his hand at the room around them, "This facility has been used to study extraterrestrial life for almost a hundred years. In the last ten, it has almost been solely focused on the study of the divine. And that's all because of you."

"I had no idea I was such a celebrity," Percy mused, "If I give you an autograph will you let me and my friends go?"

"Ah if only it were that simple," David answered, "My next question: Where have you been for the last twenty years?"

"I've been gone?" Percy replied, frowning.

"Officially you've been dead. The last official sighting of you was when you were entering a taxi at your mother's apartment twenty years ago. We found your funeral date, a private affair from which we were able to find out basically nothing, and for all intents and purposes that was the end of you. So imagine our surprise when facial recognition software picked you up from outside a coffee shop in Boston twenty years after your death. You were making no effort to hide, which suggests you did not fake your death, and you look like you haven't aged a day."

"I have a really good plastic surgeon."

"Would that plastic surgeon be Zeus?" David asked, "Did he make you a god?"

"If I was a god do you really think I would be sitting in here right now?"

"Touche."

The two settled into silence, Percy doing his best not to reveal anything from his facial expressions while David simply burnt through his cigarette, eyeing him curiously. There was a tap on the one-sided mirror and David rolled his eyes in response.

"Well… let's get down to business. Have you ever been to Stonehenge, England?"

Percy frowned. He'd been to a lot of places, but England had never been one of the places he had stopped during his adventures. He remembered Piper mentioning something about Stonehenge on the DESA documents she had stolen from the Pentagon, but he couldn't recall what it had been in reference to.

"No, why?"

David ignored his question, "Do you have any knowledge of a group known as the Annunaki?"

Percy tensed, and as much as he had done his best to be in control of his emotions up until that point, it wavered in the face of David mentioning the Babylonian gods. David read it in his face immediately and his eyebrows raised, he clearly hadn't been expecting Percy to have such a visceral response to the name.

"That's a yes," David continued, "What do you know about them?"

Percy took a deep breath and met David's eyes, "I think the better question is what do you know about them?"

He had been expecting David to fight him on that, but instead, the older man acquiesced, "A few years ago there was a terrorist attack at Stonehenge. A terrorist organisation we believe to be based out of Iraq blew up a large chunk of the stones and were rummaging through the remnants." There was another knock on the window but David seemed to ignore it, "British military intelligence engaged them on site. Over 24 tourists lost their lives in the initial explosion and the ensuing combat but the terrorists were forced to retreat. They were chased to the southern coast of England where they boarded a ship and were able to evade pursuing vessels. In the rubble, the British uncovered a very odd relic, one that archaeologists have dated to ancient Babylon. In the years following the locations storing the relic were repeatedly attacked by the terrorist group. They were able to defend it, but realised it needed to be moved to a more secure location."

"Here," Percy breathed, putting the pieces together, "You moved the relic here."

"It's one of the safest locations on the planet, protected by the full might of the DESA and a host of other US military organisations."

Percy shook his head, "They're not a terrorist organisation."

David rolled his eyes, as though he had already known that, "What exactly are they?"

"Gods," Percy answered, "And dangerous ones."

David seemed to pale, leaning back in his chair and practically evaporating his cigarette with the drag he took from it, "Do you know why they might be pursuing this relic?"

"Hard to answer if I don't know what the relic is."

David nodded slowly, "Fair…very fair," He rubbed his chin, suddenly looking very old as stress seemed to sag his features even further. "If I were to show you it, would you be able to identify it?"

Percy shrugged, "I have no idea."

David pulled his pack of cigarettes out of his coat and sighed, taking a moment before pulling another cigarette from the pack. "They're gonna have my ass for this but…" He made a motion with his hand to the people behind the window before turning back to his cigarette, rolling it between his fingers.

"If I'm going to help you," Percy started, "You need to release my friends."

David pulled his lighter out and lit his cigarette, taking a deep drag before answering, "Piper McLean broke into the Pentagon a week ago. And in the space of two days Ms. McLean, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang, Mr. Fuller, Mrs. Walker, and yourself have attempted to break into this very facility. As I mentioned previously, I could put you all into a hole and ensure you never see the light of day again."

Percy noted that he made no mention of Scarlett. He assumed that she had managed to escape into the shadows and avoid detection. He hoped that she was sticking around and was aware of their current predicament. "Mr. Hudson," Percy breathed, "There are forces at play that you can barely begin to understand. I'm trying to save the world."

David looked at him for a long time, his intense green eyes meeting Percy's intense ice-blue ones. "Mr. Jackson, while I don't doubt the truth of your words, nor your intent to back them up, I'm afraid this war is not yours to fight. It is now time for the American government to protect the American people from this foreign threat.

"They hate mortals," Percy replied, "And the only thing right now standing between them and mass genocide is me and my friends. If you want to protect humanity it's in your best interests to let me go. You can't fight this battle."

David raised an eyebrow, "I wouldn't underestimate the capability of humanity when its existence is under threat."

Percy growled, "I'm human too, dumbass."

"I never said you weren't, but you being half-divine certainly seems to have given you an ego. What makes you more capable of protecting the world than me?"

Percy felt rage crawling up inside of him, burning through his veins. He took a few deep breaths and hoped that his eyes hadn't started glowing, "Because I'm built for it…born for it. I'm Percy Jackson, and my purpose is to save the world."

David pretended to shiver, "Oo, goosebumps. If you can't stop an ambush from regular humans how are you supposed to stop genocidal gods?"

"You put a gun to my friend's head."

"And you don't think these gods will do the same? Do you think they'll play fair, Mr. Jackson? Abide by the rules? What kind of fucking fairytale do you live in?"

Percy didn't speak, he was too focused on not letting the rage overtake him once more. Through the anger though, he was frustrated that he had to concede the point. If Enlil had Annabetyh at his mercy, was he willing to sacrifice her? To watch her die in front of him? Could he allow himself to do that?

"Annabeth Chase-Walker…" David began, "Professor of Architecture at Stanford. When she was younger she summered at a camp in New York. We believe she was one of the speakers at your funeral. Anna, I'm guessing. From the books. Your girlfriend."

Percy bowed his head. He wanted to rip this guy's head off, but the thought that they might kill Annabeth was weighing on him like a tonne of bricks.

"Never let your boyfriend stop you from finding your husband though, right? Married Teddy Walker sixteen years ago. Had their first child a couple of months later. You don't think they engaged in coitus outside of wedlock do you?"

Percy closed his eyes to keep them from glowing, and as he did so it was as though his rage caused another sense to sharpen into focus. He could feel David in front of him, sense him with as much certainty as he would have had had his eyes been open. He could feel the people behind the window as well. Five of them. Two sitting down and three standing behind them.

"Y'know Teddy goes to group counselling," David continued, "It's a group for mortals who can see beyond the veil. Only ten or so people. Most people read the signs for it and think it's a meeting of nutjobs…the perfect cover. He talks about how he met Annabeth and she changed his life. Helped him see the real world. His kids even go to camp for the children of the gods. I mean…what an amazing story. I wonder…how has he handled her old boyfriend coming back from the dead? Not well?"

The rage was coming in waves, and as each wave came his sense sharpened and expanded, coming through in clearer and clearer detail. It was as though the rage were its fuel, and with every comment out of the DESA director's mouth, Percy could feel his perception expanding. The ground building began to shake subtly. They were deep underground, he could sense that, but that only made the shaking that began as a vent for his rage all the more terrifying.

The figures behind the window tensed, even as David remained perfectly calm. Percy could feel their heightened tension, the increased blood flow, the rise in temperature. He could feel it with such accuracy that he could tell one of the people behind the mirror was twisting something around their finger nervously. Their ring finger, left hand. A wedding ring.

Percy's brain felt like it was going to explode, the information input was immense, and he was now having to fight to keep himself from being overwhelmed. A throbbing in his head began to roar in his ears. He could hear his blood rushing, feel it. He could feel everything. He needed it to stop. He needed to breathe. He took a deep breath in, then released it slowly. Then again. Then again. Then again.

The blood rushing in his ears quieted. The field of his view shrunk. The pain in his head faded. And the shaking of the earth ceased.

"Earthshaker…stormbringer…" David breathed, and when Percy opened his eyes to look at him the older man was looking at him in awe, "You are so much more than I anticipated."

"I want to leave," Percy stated firmly, "And I want to leave now."

"Listen…Mr. Jackson. You have answered my questions honestly, and been far more candid than I could have hoped for. I will petition for your release on account of your assistance to DESA operations."

"How long will that take?" Percy asked, and as he did so he noticed that despite there being no pain, his head felt as though it was throbbing gently. He also realised that he could still perceive the people behind the window. There was less input and less detail, but he could still feel them there. Feel them watching.

David sighed, "Bureaucracy in the United States rarely moves quickly. Probably a couple of weeks, but I will see you moved to more comfortable arrangements while we wait for the necessary paperwork to come through."

"We don't have a couple weeks," Percy sighed, "Every second I'm in here is a second we're losing in the fight against the Annunaki."

David shook his head, "I've already explained, this isn't your fight anymore."

"Then let my friends go. Let my friends go and I'll leave the fight to you."

David took a deep drag from his cigarette, "Even if I believed that for a minute, Mr Jackson, I'm afraid your spirit of cooperation did not extend to your friends. They will be remaining here for the time being."

Percy's eyes flashed, "They're leaving, or I'm going to become a problem."

David studied him for a second, weighing the threat in his mind, "I'll make you a deal," he finally said, "A compromise. I'll let you leave, as soon as this meeting ends, with Mrs. Chase-Walker. In return, you promise never to come back here and to forget about this whole incident as well as the whole Annuanki thing. You're done with that too. How does that sound?"

Pretty fucking good if Percy was being honest. He and Annabeth could get out and run away. Run away from all the pain and all the suffering. Hide from the Annunaki, and live out the rest of their days in peace. Just the two of them.

"You promised…" whispered in his ear. A feminine voice, and one that sounded strangely familiar. Calm…comforting…warm.

He couldn't run, that had never been an option. He sensed two people entering the edge of his perception. They were carrying something heavy judging by the increased blood flow and sweat. He looked past David and at the one-way window staring back at him.

"I'd open the door if I were you," he said.

David frowned, and turned to where he was looking, but obviously couldn't see anything. Percy, however, was able to sense one of the people standing opening the door, just as the two new people arrived. Instantly there was a spike in blood pressure from the people in the other room. He'd gotten them a little scared. Good. He liked that.

"Oh," he continued, looking straight at the person playing with their ring, "And that's a very pretty ring by the way."

Another spike. He did his best to keep himself from smiling. David turned back to him, frowning, just as the door let out a beep. They turned and watched as it swung open, revealing two men in military uniforms carrying a large covered box between them. They placed it on the table and then stood on either side, between Percy and David. One of them pulled the cover off to reveal the object underneath.

It was about the size of a shield, forged from dark metal and inlaid with intricate veins of gold that carved out cosmic symbols. Stars, planets, moons and asteroids were laid out in an exquisitely well-fashioned design. At its centre, a small dark gemstone in the shape of a sphere sat pride of place. The edges of the relic seemed to rise slightly, like the crust of an enormous metal pizza. Along the edges were words scratched in a language he didn't recognise.

Percy looked up at David, "24 people died for this?"

David eyed the relic, "I said 24 tourists. A lot more than 24 have died to keep this in our hands. Any idea why they want it so badly?"

Percy looked at the relic again, studying it. It was beautiful, but nothing really stood out to him. He was reminded of when he had been at the library in Egypt, facing the statute of Enlil. He hadn't seen anything until Carter told him to look for the magic. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he was searching for the magic. His eyes traced the golden symbol of the moon, the language around the edge, and settled on the dark gemstone sitting in its centre. He peered at its surface, wondering what kind of precious metal it was. He looked deeper and deeper until he realised it had begun to spin. It increased its speed, and as it did so the veins closest to it began to pulse gently. The spinning continued to increase in speed until it simply became a blur, and suddenly he was falling forward.

He was falling into the gemstone, hurtling down into the darkness. A spec of light in the distance became bigger and bigger until it widened to fill his entire vision. He landed with a sudden and unnatural speed, but there was no impact. He did not hit the ground, he simply arrived. And he had arrived at the scene of a nightmare.

Around him, a desolate, forsaken wasteland stretched endlessly beneath an ominous, swirling sky. The world lay before him in ruin, a barren husk. Its surface was scarred by the remnants of ancient wars. Crumbling monoliths and shattered fortresses littered the cracked earth, their once-mighty structures reduced to little more than broken whispers of power long lost. The ground around them, once a dark sand, was stained golden with ichor. Black bones, reflecting eerily from the shining cosmos above, formed the countless skeletal remains that blanketed the landscape.

Directly in front of him, in the heart of this desolation, sat a lone figure. A terrifying silhouette against the cosmic backdrop, he loomed upon a mountain of bones, his form shrouded in rags. His immense shoulders rose and fell with slow, deliberate breath, lightning sparking around him. Though facing away, a sudden weight pressed against Percy's being. A kind of gravity that pulled him towards the figure. The sky above him churned with celestial bodies, distant stars flickering like dying embers, all of it swirling around the sky with its centre where the figure sat.

"Welcome to my home," the figure spoke, deliberately and powerfully. Percy recognised the voice, and his blood ran cold. "I look forward to seeing yours."

And then in a moment, Percy was thrown backwards, out of the nightmare and slammed back against the chair in the middle of the room. He breathed the air in hungrily, fighting to calm the panic rising in his chest.

David looked at him in confusion, his eyebrows knitted together, "What is it?"

"Enlil," Percy breathed, "It's Enlil."

"Whats Enlil?"

"He's their king," Percy started, no longer caring how much he gave away, "King of the Annunaki. He was sealed away off-planet for thousands of years. He's the one who wants to wipe out humanity, he's the one they're trying to bring him back."

David went silent, exchanging glances with the two men standing on either side of him, "You saw something?"

Percy nodded, "I saw him. He's waiting for something, for some way to get back."

"Like a portal?" David asked.

"Yeah," Percy answered, "Yeah like a portal."

David seemed to sink slightly in our chair, "Well that would explain why they want this so bad."

Percy looked at him, frowning.

"Our testing of the relic indicates that it is built of an alien material, not something naturally occurring on Earth. Something from another planet."

"Their planet," Percy exhaled, the pieces clicking into place, "This is the portal. This is what they need to bring him back."

In the distance, the sound of an explosion erupted. An alarm sounded in the room and David suddenly became very pale. Another figure stepped through the door, an older black lady in a lab coat.

"Explosion on the surface. Hostile forces have made contact," she said, looking at David.

"Prepare defensive measures," David replied, standing as he did so, "Move the relic back to the vault. Activate Project Aegis and Project Sentinel. Contact the President and the Joint Chiefs, and tell them we are under attack."

The lady nodded and disappeared, while the two men who had carried the relic in through the cover back over and also departed. David put out his cigarette and looked at Percy, once more looking like a very old man indeed.

"Let me out," Percy pleaded, "I can help you."

"I don't doubt it," David conceded, "And to be honest I'm half-considering letting you. But we've been preparing for this. It's time to find out if we were ready."

With that, the director of the DESA picked up his files and marched out of the room, with the door beeping and closing behind him. Percy was left alone, with only the used ashtray for company.

Percy huffed in frustration. The forces of the Annunaki were at their doorstep and they were too stupid to let him fight. It seemed David Hudson had a lot in common with Zeus when it came to overestimating their own ability.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to wait. He focused on the throbbing in his head and began to slowly push it out once more, expanding his perception. It felt like a balloon, and the more he focused on it and the more he pushed it the more it expanded. Only two people were left in the room behind the one-way mirror, but Percy pushed his perception beyond it, blowing the balloon bigger and bigger so that it covered more of the facility. He could sense the hundreds of people moving, many of them sprinting, through the military base. A few rooms away from him he could sense a lone figure, sitting in a chair in the same position as him., with one person sitting watching them.

Annabeth!

Percy's focus snapped backwards, as he cut out the perception of everyone else around him until it was just him and the two people guarding him. He focused on them, narrowing in on the detail, sensing the blood rushing through their veins. He had never tried to control someone through their blood before, but he remembered from Mrs Brown's 10th-grade science class that blood was like 98% seawater. He'd wondered at the time if he would be able to control it. If there was ever a time to find out, it was right now.

He focused in on the one on the right, sitting at the desk. He could feel it, the water inside them. It pulsed with every beat of their hearts, rushing through their veins in a constant, rhythmic cycle. His fingers twitched slightly, and in response, the liquid inside their bodies responded, shifting under his will. The sensation was intoxicating, like grasping a delicate thread that held the key to life itself. He pushed, and their blood thickened, sluggish and heavy within their arteries. He fought down the quiet thrill that ran down his spine when he felt the person stiffen, their muscles locking into place like a marionette bound by invisible strings.

He released the one on the right, before turning to the one on the left, testing if it worked on them too. It felt so raw, so primal. He was powerful enough to quite literally bend them to his will. It stirred something deep in him. A greed for power he had never felt before.

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. He focused in once more, locking both of them in place. He could feel their hearts fluttering like caged birds, desperate, panicked. He had their lifeblood in his grasp, a delicate balance between paralysis and something far, far worse. His breath hitched for a moment as the thought crossed his mind how easy it would be to stop it entirely, to let them drop lifeless to the ground.

Disgust brought him back to reality with a start. He wasn't doing this because he liked it, he was doing it because he needed to save his friends. Nothing more, nothing less. He pulled blood away from their arms and legs, trying to give himself as much time as possible to break out of the chair before they could raise the alarm.

He pulled back as much as he could, and then in the same moment he let go of his control on them he began to pull his arms apart. He hauled up the strength he needed from deep inside, using strength he had never truly put to the test to rip the chains apart. In an instant the chains shattered, leaving only the manacles hanging uselessly around his wrists. He ripped the chains holding his legs out of the ground, marvelling at how easy the demonstration of strength was for him. He kicked the chair away from him and cleared the table in a single leap, diving towards the one-way mirror.

Under the impact of his fist, the mirror shattered, and he went careening through the window and into the room where they had been guarding him. The two people tasked with guarding him were buff-looking men, but they were still trying to pick themselves up from the floor due to his blood-bending. The one nearest to him pulled a knife out from his belt and drove the blade towards him. Percy had expected it to just bounce off, but instead, a red glow outlined the blade and while it didn't pierce the skin, white-hot pain flared from the point of impact.

"Arrghh," Percy groaned, kicking the man away from him and glancing at his leg where the blade had made contact. An ugly-looking burn had been left behind. He growled and landed a heavy punch to the man's head, knocking his lights out.

He turned on the other man who was reaching for an alarm on the wall. Percy reached out and willed his arm to stop, denying the man the blood he needed to pull the alarm down. The man screamed, but Percy was already on him, delivering another firm blow to the head that sent the guard sprawling to the floor like his counterpart.

Percy let out a groan and staggered against the wall. His stomach churned violently, a sickening knot of guilt and disgust twisting deep inside him. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the thought of the blood bending made him queasy. A shudder wracked his body, and suddenly he was on his knees, fingers digging into the cold floor. His chest lurched, a ragged, desperate gag ripping through him before he vomited, his body convulsing with every heave.

The sour taste burned his throat, as he wiped his mouth with one of the men's jackets. He needed to get a hold of himself. It was life or death, he needed to lock in.

He crawled over to the man's knife and picked it up, noticing a button in the side. When he held it down a red glow began to pulse along the knife's outline. He pressed it against the floor and watched in awe as the knife cut through the floor like butter. An idea sprung to mind, and he held the knife carefully as he used the burning-hot blade to cut through the manacles around his wrists and ankles. When he was done, he crashed on the floor in exhaustion. His leg screamed in pain from the burn, his body felt queasy and exhausted, and his mind was on the brink of collapse.

Black spots danced around his vision as he stared at the dim light above him. He needed water…or ambrosia…or nectar…His thoughts became muddled as he curled into a ball on the floor, shaking. He was so disgusted with himself, with the way he had held those men's lives in his hand. With the way, it had excited him. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he just lay here and…

"You promised!" the same feminine voice echoed in his ears and his eyes shot open.

He couldn't stay here. He needed to get out. He needed to find his friends and get Annabeth and-

Annabeth! He had felt her, sitting in a room not too far away from him. He needed to get to her, she would know what to do.

He staggered to his feet, doing his best not to look at the pile of vomit between the two unconscious men. He teetered dangerously as he began to walk, but managed to make his way to the door.

The Annunaki had arrived, and they were coming for the item they needed to bring Enlil back.

They needed to get to it first.

Authors Note: Hello all and Happy New Year. I'm sorry it took so long to get the chapter out. I had it 80% done around New Year but really wasn't happy with it. Ended up rewriting a lot of it and changing a few things but I didn't have enough time once the semester started back up again. I hope you enjoyed it. Like I said we're getting into a part of the story I've been really excited to write so hopefully the next couple chapters will be out fairly soon.

Thank you so much for all the positive reviews, you guys are so kind and supportive and I love it when you have theories or point out issues because it tells me you're invested in the story just like me. So please as always REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW :)