XXXV
Percy's eyes shot open.
He found himself sitting upright against what felt like a boulder. His easily borne armor felt like an anchor and kept him from any movement.
Lightning cracked and splintered in their many dances across the grey and clouded sky, rocketing and stretching across the expanse above as if they were trees themselves.
He was on that desolate plain once again. There was no miasma of planes this time. A wasteland of pale sand and rock. Embering fires scattered about and the still bodies of fallen warriors and their weapons were among them, below them the earth and jutting bones were stained red.
He felt weak.
Drained of all energy as he rested against that rock.
The demigod cradled his arm. The damage of the Master Bolt did not leave him here. He assumed it to be a dream or something but with Chronos, his injuries had not translated there.
Here they did. As if he had them all along.
Percy felt like he was being watched. While shaking the feeling off, he did not dismiss it entirely. The seeming presence didn't seem malicious. Even if it was, there was not much he could do to stand against it.
Was this the afterlife?
He hadn't ever thought of what such an existence would entail. The precipice of death while certainly something that he had come close to on numerous occasions had never quite seen him over the edge.
Had the Judges determined his crimes against his kin to outweigh his service? Was this his Field of Punishment? To wander aimlessly across a barren plain of death and fire? To reflect on everything he had failed to do? A torment of everything that could have been avoided?
It certainly was not Elysium. That much he was sure.
But as he thought on it further, he didn't know how he would react being in such a utopia.
While he was sure that many, if not some had attained paradise, Percy didn't know how he would confront those he had knowingly sent to their deaths.
Those heroes he had personally slain.
What would he do if he saw Annabeth again?
Such a thing would be even more painful than whatever the Master Bolt was capable of.
No. As much as he would love to rejoin them. He didn't think he could ever face them again.
Being here…and reflecting on his wrongs…whether he liked it or not…whether his service to the gods mattered…he knew that the decision to prohibit him from entering Elysium was a just one. Or at least, he felt it was.
"Why can't this be Elysium?" An ethereal voice asked curiously but distinctly feminine. It was melodic and had the touch of silk in its sound. A roiling of power was underneath the question but also held a tint of annoyance. As if she was offended at the very notion.
He didn't answer. It unsettled him. A slight chill caressed his skin and he shivered at the sensation.
After a few moments, there was a swirl of ash and sand just before him. About a meter away if he had to guess.
Percy didn't have the strength to be surprised when the woman appeared.
It was the first time he had seen her since before departing to Asgard and even then it was unwelcome.
Not that this entity seemed to care in the slightest.
She stood away, looking at him in affection and concern? She was just as he remembered her from his dream. Healthy pale skin and again adorned in what one would expect a grieving widow.
But he didn't think this to be a dream. Not like last time. This felt too real. Percy could feel the dirt and rock beneath him. He could feel the warmth of the dying fire he sat beside. He could feel the chill of the wind that blew through the barren wasteland.
She clicked her tongue as she walked towards him. Whether in disappointment or humor, he didn't know.
A simple chair of grey and black shadowy smoke materialized beside him and she took a seat as if she were a queen, her back straight and her shoulders squared.
He spared her a glance before redirecting his gaze to stare ahead; he still sat upon the sand and rocky ground against the pale stone boulder. If she was here to torment him, he would not give her the satisfaction as she seemed content to let him begin any sort of conversation.
So, they sat there.
And sat there.
And continued to sit there for a long, long time.
Finally Percy regarded her with a look, one of annoyance but also of resignation.
She simply smiled down at him.
"What do you want?"
"I think that is rather apparent." Her response was swift and her smile remained.
Percy didn't think it was. Immortals and beings were always so evasive when it came to answering simple questions and it annoyed him to no end. They always said one thing and meant another. Meant one thing and said something else.
He should know. He's dealt with so many of them that it was difficult to not notice it. Case in point, that was how he ended up here in the first place.
Wherever here was, that is.
When it became clear that she wouldn't expand on her answer, Percy asked his next question, one that was bugging him from the moment he had sat there. "Am I dead?"
She nodded, her smile widening at him. "You're dead."
He felt his heard sink and he looked away in slight defeat, missing the way her smile turned into a frown at his reaction.
"The Master Bolt is a potent and powerful weapon, to you at least. To have lived as long as you had is nothing short of a miracle." Her features morphed into one of pride.
He looked back to her, his eyes narrowing. "You know." His voice a low growl of anger in his ancient dialect. How did this being know? It broke his understanding of what had happened. As far as he was aware only, Chronos was aware that he had been forced to another timeline.
Unless…
Her smile grew as realization grew on his face.
The woman seemed to want to be the one to voice it though. "Who do you think placed you there in the first place?" She sat primly, leaned slightly down to him and then winked conspiratorially down at him. "That witch wishes she had the forethought to do so. Her miscast would have been nothing more than a tickle to you had I not…prodded it along." The woman laughed. It was that same melodic and silken song that accompanied her voice. "The little green stone is capable of so much more than mere loops."
"You're the one Chronos spoke of." Percy deduced. He was still sat on the ground, cradling his arm.
Her eyes narrowed and twitched in annoyance and her lips fell into a slight pout. "It was only a little fun. Besides, you should be thanking me!"
He scoffed and barked a humorless laugh. The day he thanks an immortal for whatever supposed favors they granted, is the day he walked willingly into the Abyss. "That'll never happen."
She laughed as if she were joining him, standing as she did so. Her chair of smoke collapsing in on itself. "If only you knew, Apollyon. If only you knew." She stood before him, leaning down at him, the veil disappearing in a flicker of more smoke. "Though I suppose you'll know soon enough." She laughed again, though it was more of a giggle and one that conveyed that she was waiting for him to open a present that he would love.
A flicker of Annabeth flashed before him the woman seemingly transforming into the daughter of Athena. Her stormy grey eyes crinkled in happiness as she gave him a couple wrapped gifts aboard the Argos II for all the birthdays and Christmas' he had missed while asleep.
The scene was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
He looked around, the woman was still peering down at him, though he could still make out the voids that twinkled at him. She leaned in close to him. Her lips and unnatural cold breath tingling against his ear.
"You've caught my attention, Apollyon." She whispered though the melodic and silken words sounded as if she were...excited. "Now let us see what you do with it."
She pursed her lips and kissed his cheek. A chaste kiss but one that held a certain…possessiveness. An ice lingered from the contact and it began to spread. It was cold. Frighteningly and unnaturally so. As if the ice was being pulled over and around him. As if the ice was being sent into his very veins.
Thoughts ran into his mind. Its like when I fight. He took a straining breath as the woman pulled away, a smile playing on her lips as she looked down at him in his darkening vision. Its like when I lead.
Another straining and gasping breath. An attempt to pull in the hot desert air to combat the unnatural cold that was engulfing him.
Percy's eyes shot open.
It was a disorienting sight. For a moment, at least, as his eyes blinked to adjust to the light. His breathing hoarse and stilted as he strained for air.
Percy knew that while his surroundings were unfamiliar that he was safe and that he could relax. He was home. Or at least his home away from home.
A flurry of people rushed in. Medical personnel of Atlantis all fussing over him as his vision blurred and began to refocus.
Then pain engulfed him once more.
As if lava had been injected into his very veins.
As if his body was being crushed by some unfathomable weight.
As if he had taken a swim in the Styx and was under the burden of the Titan's Curse at the same time. His entire being felt like it was being pulled apart and sewn back together and then repeated for a hundred times.
He screamed and thrashed. Or at least he tried too. There was some sort of thing that was covering his mouth that prevented any noise from escaping him.
And the moment his body began to jerk and spasm, what felt like a hundred hands had latched onto him to hold him down and restrained him.
His vision clouded and darkened as he felt something jab into him.
What felt like moments later, Percy began to wake once again. This time though, he was not in exponential pain that was instead a dull ache.
He saw someone he didn't think he would see until the coming summer. Helios was over him, inspecting him closely as another doctor studied a chart and a nurse tended to a nearby IV stand.
He opened and then closed his eyes as the light glared into them.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, little sea spawn." Helios' eyes blazed like miniature suns, much like his father, though where the Titan of the East held a certain power and malevolence with his every word. The Titan of the Sun's held in contrast a gentle sharpness. "Doctor, excuse us please. Nurse inform Lord Poseidon that his son is awake."
Percy's eyes opened slightly more. The tube in his throat was gone and his breathing was still hoarse but it was easier to do so than before. "How long was I out?" The two beings bowed slightly and left without another word as Helios pulled a seat up to the side of the bed and forced one of his eyes open and waved a finger in front of it as he spoke. Percy following the unspoken direction to follow it. It was almost instinct at this point for him.
"Eight hours and thirty seven minutes." Was the offhand response.
"What happened?"
And then Helios told him. Told him how in New York, there was a mortal conflict one that was instigated by a group of mortal terrorists with intent to kill the mortal business man. On how the two Asgardians had come to his aid before a different group of mortals could intervene. From there, his sisters and brother on the godly side of his family, had turned up to retrieve him on his father's orders because he had felt Percy dying.
All while continuing to perform small scale tests as Percy recovered what strength he could.
From there it was anyone's guess as to what was going on in the Mortal Realm. It wasn't like immortals tended to have a vested interest in what happened there.
It annoyed Percy to no end that Morgana was not responsible for his perceived tenure in the alternate timeline. But that only added to the question as to why the Daughter of Trivia was there int the
There was a small silence as Percy digested the information. The nurse returning to inform them that Lord Poseidon was preoccupied with something but would come as soon as was possible.
Helios folded his arms across his chest and glanced out the doorway but leaned in close even if there was no one there. "What I want to know is what you are doing with a wound from the Master Bolt."
Percy didn't answer right away. His gaze still fixed on the entryway.
Should I tell him?
The thought left him the moment it arrived. He supposed he still had to uphold his end of the bargain with the Primordial of Time.
"I had an altercation with a sorceress." Percy settled on. "I don't know much beyond that."
"I see." Helios hummed, though it was clear he didn't take him at his word. Maybe, he'd be able to play it as a sort of attack? One manifested by Morgana? "If you will allow? I need to give you a complete physical. The fact that you're awake on your own is a miracle by itself."
Percy was run through a myriad of tests, similar to ones that he had often received from the doctors at camp after a particularly nasty monster encounter.
It was hard. His entire body ached and it pained him to move anything on his left side.
Helios said that the surgeries were due to that. His armor was literally melted and grafted into him from the attack.
Nothing like the injuries he had endured at the Second Gigantomachy. There, the armor was melted in a few places but still removable after some cutting. These were much worse, it wouldn't have been a stretch to say that he was one with his armor. At least that is the way that Helios had put it. It was impossible to remove the seared armor without cutting away the burnt flesh with it.
But being a demigod, allowed certain remedies that would prevent any other mortal from dying of such injuries if they even survived to the stage of surgery. That said, being a child of the sea afforded him even more benefits. Water would allow him to regenerate slowly over time the loss.
In time he would be whole once again.
Looking into a mirror on the wall, Percy was able to see what exactly happened to him. The scarring of the Master Bolt was extensive and the bite wound suffered from one of Arachne's abominations was deep. Pink skin was burned into a running of veins that looked like a miasma of lightning or a flaring and overgrown tree. It traveled from his left shoulder all way down his left leg and arm and creeped up his neck and slightly onto his face.
At least, his hair had regrown. Being bald would've sucked.
Helios said he was lucky that he had extensive experience with lightning and the discharging of such. It was probably what allowed him to live so long as his instinct would've been to immediately discharge the lightning as fast as possible whether through his hand or from his grounded foot.
In this case both.
"When can I expect to be back in action?" He asked as he grunted and winced in slight pain as he dressed himself in plain clothes. Given his luck, there wasn't any doubt that he would be forced back into the thick of things before whatever recommended healing was done.
At least Helios understood that. There was no badgering or ordering of remaining on his bed that was typical of most doctors, immortal or not. The Sun Titan knew that to expect such a thing from the Son of Poseidon was simply out of the question.
"You should have full function in about three months, one with frequent time spent soaking. Keep use of your left side to a minimum. The scarring from the surgeries and stitches should clear up after a couple weeks but regarding your new tree, I am sure you know that divine wounds leave scars that do not disappear. With a wound like that, expect some involuntary spasms or twitches."
As if if hearing him and in support of his statement, his left hand twitched slightly. It was not something violent, not yet but it may prove to be something that he would need to watch for.
Percy still had those claw scars from the Drakon and the myriad of them across his body and face. Fierce reminders that he was, despite his prowess and ability, still mortal.
And this would prove no different.
The was a comfortable silence as the Titan went over his patient once again to ensure no abnormalities remained that weren't already present.
That was until the Queen of Olympus walked into the room. A hard and stony look gracing her face.
"I suppose that ends my time here." The Titan spoke in a low tone. Not one that was in anger but simply said in recognition that he was probably no longer needed. It was also clear that Hera wanted him gone as she waited by the door. He stood. "Perseus, I believe I'll see you in six months time."
If there was one thing that Percy did not miss of this time, it was the meeting with the freed Titanomachy.
Percy nodded and muttered his thanks to the Sun Titan as he left. He bowed slightly to the Queen of Olympus before continuing on his way. Not in entire deference but enough to respect her positions.
It didn't seem to matter because she didn't seem to care of him in the slightest as she walked towards him.
However, the sight of the Queen made his blood run cold. He felt his breathing hasten slightly and the quiet beeping of medical equipment begin to overwhelm the small steps of the Queen of Olympus.
He had to force himself to calm.
Percy assumed that he had been in alternate timeline. That what he did afforded Olympus of that time a chance at something more than grasping for straws.
The presence of Hera could only mean one thing.
"Queen Hera." His voice, tinged in slight fear. Fear of what, he didn't know but fear all the same. He made to stand only to be stopped by a dainty but powerful hand. Enough pressure that it told him to remain resting but not enough to actually harm him. There was hint of it there but enough to reinforce that she could still kill him if necessary. Hera's features transitioned into one of calm and relief.
"Perseus. It is good to see you well." Her voice was soft and while after she took the seat previously occupied by Helios, there was a momentary lapse of focus. A sort of faraway look as she sat down.
"Did…I…" Percy couldn't get the words out. They were too loaded. That if he said them aloud, it would only serve to cement that whatever he did was not enough even in the grand scheme of things.
Hera seemed to know exactly what he was speaking of. "You did."
"So in the end I achieved nothing?" His voice was a whisper.
"You achieved victory." The Queen corrected. "I do not know how the witch was capable of using the Time Stone but she did, if accidentally."
"Everyone still died." If only he had given her more information instead of using his limited time to go after something that could've been set aside.
"You gave us a chance, Perseus." A solemn smile, eyes of regret but also of surety as if she would do it all again if needed.
And then all of it seemed to click in his mind. All the concern she had in these past few years, it may have been in part of her own natural growth from being a horrid goddess but it wasn't such a naïve thing. She was concerned because she didn't know if he truly was the one that went back in time.
Her support for him wasn't something borne entirely of gratefulness. It was borne of simple calculated influence. If he was the one that went back, she needed to be the one he went to tell of the future.
On how he was selected personally by her to lead the armies of Olympus in the Battle of Greece. It wasn't because of some vain or naïve notion of pleasing the politics of Olympus, but on a measured assurance that he would win.
No matter the cost. No matter the sacrifices necessary. That he would do his duty to Olympus.
He was responsible. He wanted to laugh. Hera had even been the one to bestow upon him his hated moniker.
He had been the proponent of uniting Roman and Greek and the idea of Hera's ploys and schemes to unite the children of Olympus. And in the wake of the Second Titanomachy, he was the idea behind the consolidation of Olympian power and her peoples.
Where all the demigods came from Percy didn't know. But the mobilization of legacies was something he had mentioned to Hera in the past. He was responsible for their appearance in the first place.
That is why she needed him protected, alive and undisturbed until he went back in time to tell her.
He had heard of something like this once from Annabeth. What was it called? A pandora…no…a paradox. Yes that was it. A paradox. The Fates had said that he was not bound by their manipulations. And yet he had went back and changed everything. Would they not have noticed that? Or was it really changed in the first place? Was it all planned?
"I meant what I said at the end of the Second Gigantomachy." Hera spoke her voice still calm, every word spoken with a silken tone that bade him to rest and think. "You have saved us. Unknowingly or not, time and time again. You have my eternal gratitude and respect and that if you ever require anything, you need only ask."
But while he did register her words, other thoughts began to run through his mind.
Percy would have changed the fates of everyone, even his own.
His mind worked and strained to understand. Where did it all begin? For his own sanity, he needed to know what happened. Was he truly responsible for all of this?
Morgana. He came to a sudden realization. Morgana had said that I interfere in Fate too much and that led to all this.
It looked increasingly likely that she was responsible, unknowingly or not. But with his recent…dream… he knew that was not true. That woman in his mind was responsible.
Thoughts abounded further. It was all a convoluted mess. He supposed that he should have a talk with Morgana and what prompted her to act in the first place.
He supposed he could start finding out now. There was no better font of information than the one who ultimately orchestrated the unification of the Olympian pantheon.
Percy looked to Hera. "I want to know everything."
Hera nodded and spoke.
'You couldn't erase the past. You couldn't even change it. But sometimes life offered you the opportunity to put it right.'
-Ann Brashares
I wanted to tie up the time travel arc in a way that explained what went on. Percy didn't change the past. He enabled it. A tragedy really. What exactly he influenced will be explored in detail within the prequel and hinted at or referenced here. To put simply, the being used the pretense of the Time Stone to send Percy to the past, why we will see in the future. In Percy's attempt to change what he assumed to be an alternate timeline, merely enabled his. Hera knowing the consequences of Time and the general Olympian opinion regarding it, chose to keep it secret until Percy was sent back to the original time and then told Percy.
Something my beta reader said when we were discussing is that people who end up trying to defy their fate is what causes their fate to happen.
I would also like to say that the concept of the 'Unreliable Narrator' is prevalent in this story. If you haven't figured it out, Percy has his bias and own points of view. He acts the way he does because of past experiences. His decisions do not equal the 'best' or 'right' choices. They're simply what he chooses.
That goes for all characters in this work. Sif. Thor. Morgana. Tony. Steve. Fury. Carol. Major and Minor. It doesn't matter they're all subject to this.
Also for those complaining or questioning why I'm bringing in the Fantastic 4 and X-Men, if this was MCU. In the very first chapter and in the very top note, I said I was pulling stuff from many Marvel sources to incorporate into this work. That being said, it won't be long until they officially and canonically join the MCU anyway.
For some quick background, The Fantastic 4 only came into being in the aftermath of the Battle of New York. One of them was actually encountered by Percy during the battle though never explicitly stated. We'll be getting to that in the future.
Mutants are similar to what they were in X-Men with Patrick Stewart, they want to hang around in the background because of persecution and the politics of their existence. They don't want come out unless it involves one of them or if they absolutely have to intervene.
I would like to remind people that I write fanfiction for fun, to experiment with different themes and styles and above all for myself. I am under no obligation to write. Being able to share with you all and receive feedback is simply a bonus.
That being said! I will be going on a temporary break. Going to stockpile chapters for all my stories after taking a small break from writing to recharge.
I will still be active on the Emerald Library Discord, if you have any questions, you can still find me there. The link to that is on my profile. If you join, please follow the rules.