Chapter 8
Percy
Percy was in a battlefield. In Greece, to be precise. He would never be able to forget that fight, it had been so risky and glorious. It had been months, but nightmares of what had happened still haunted him.
This version, though, takes the cake.
Unfortunately, in a bad way.
He was there, but he couldn't move. He saw the seven of the prophecy and the gods.
Frank was using his bow to take down opponents alongside Apollo, while Ares and Hazel guarded their backs. Hazel looked majestically deadly with all the jewels she had raised from the earth below. Every single monster fell for her tricks and took the treasures. Of course, they died a painful death right away.
Jason was flying with Zeus. The image was breath-taking: thunder rumbled around them, vaporizing all the monsters who surrounded them. But the best part were them. Electricity crackled through their bodies and Percy couldn't quite decide if it was beautiful or scary. Maybe both.
Piper was in the ground with her mother. Monster after monster died in their hands, both through Piper's dagger Katoptris or through their charmspeak. Aphrodite made even the strongest of giants yield. Piper finished the beings her mother left vulnerable for her, managing on her own the rest that were around them. She told the monsters to turn against each other, fight on their side of kill themselves. She never failed.
Then there was Leo and Hephaestus. Gods, they were deadly. With Leo's tool-belt, Hephaestus' power and the wit of them both, nothing could stop them. They built machine after machine without even needing to communicate. If his father built bombs, Leo built a drone to deliver them. If his son built a machine with sounds deadly to monsters, Hephaestus built an amplifier. They might have been away from the physical fight but no one could say that they didn't help because that would be a lie.
Guarding Hephaestus and Leo were Dionysus and Demeter, who turned out to be a great team. The god of wine made vines grow from the earth endlessly and the goddess by his side combined her power to make them nearly indestructible and strong enough to bring down any enemy. Anyone who dared to approach them ended up being dragged to the middle of the vines, never to be seen again.
Then there was Artemis who, against all odds, partnered with Hermes to destroy Polybotes. Both were as agile as nobody else could be, Artemis for the hunt and Hermes for being the god of thieves. Together, they managed to trick the giant into focusing only on the fast god who was stealing from him anything he had on. Polybotes fell for the trick and was soon turning into the familiar golden dust. Maybe the fact that gods and demigods were in the same battle field counted as 'a god and demigod working together'. Either way, the giant went back to Tartarus.
The fight that took Percy's breath away every time he relived this battle, however, was Athena and Annabeth's. They were both fighting with daggers, taking down weak monsters. Were the goddess and her daughter weak? No, it was a strategy. A strategy that worked out perfectly. Just as planned, the few remaining powerful monsters searched for the reason of their army's number going down drastically. They saw everyone taking down monsters, but the ones who were killing more than anyone else were the goddess of wisdom and her daughter. How stupid did they have to be to not see a trick coming from this was unimaginable. Of course, this ended on half of the remaining monsters dying in hands of Aphrodite’s charmspeak, who had been commanded what to do via mind-link by Athena.
Now the final part had to come: Poseidon and Percy killing the last giant and causing the rest of the army to retreat.
This time, that did not happen.
Poseidon was trying to kill Porphyrion on his own, his son nowhere to be seen. Percy watched in his dreams the way all the demigods and gods were too focused on trying to kill every single monster in sight to realize what was happening.
Then, the worst occurred.
Hazel was trying to use the mist to make the monsters believe that they had lost. A dracaenae, though, apparently saw that coming. Hazel was too focused on the task in hand to notice the monster sneaking behind her. Ares did, but not in time to get them both out of the fight unharmed. The only option was to let the Hazel die or get in the way of the monster's spear. Ares, in a surge of bravery and determination, chose the latter.
The daughter of Pluto lost her concentration completely as she saw his soon-to-be father-in-law being pierced by a spear. As she watched horrified the body of Ares covered in ichor, she was killed. An angry cyclops stepped on her. She didn't even scream. The only thing left of Hazel was a mass of blood.
Apollo saw everything, but he didn't want to tell his partner. Frank would go crazy if he knew that his girlfriend was now dead and that his father was... unavailable. But he also couldn't keep the information from him, he had the right to know. It was his family.
Apollo was right.
Frank freaked out, which at first turned out to be effective. Monster after monster went down under his rage, the first to fall being the cyclops that killed Hazel, his dear Hazel. However, the rage soon subsided and left only grief. Let's just say that crying in the floor in the middle of a battlefield wasn't exactly secure. Now the god of the sun had to take care of both of them, and this time nobody was guarding their backs. It was useless. It wasn't long until the god gave up. Apollo fell unconscious with five stab wounds and a club wound in his head. Frank hadn't looked up yet, he was still sobbing violently when a hellhound ripped him open.
The only thing Percy could do was look at the scene going on around him, horrified and desperate to help, but he couldn't move. 'This is just a dream, this never happened. It's just Tartarus messing with your head. You won this battle. They are alive'. He tried to convince himself that what he was seeing was false, to no avail. It seemed so real and he was so scared. No logic could bring him out of the heart-breaking fight and the death of his friends.
The blood of two demigods had been spilled and therefore Gaea rose. This time, however, she woke up to help the giants and did not go straight to attack Camp Half-blood.
The dream kept going, showing him in detail how each of his friends were murdered and the way all the gods fell unconscious in a state that made it difficult for them to ever wake up again.
Jason died in hands of Kelli. That stupid bitch. She drained him of blood and then disappeared in gold dust under Zeus rage. That didn't last long, though, because he too fell unconscious when he was drowned. Poseidon was too concentrated trying to finish off the giant to realize what was happening to his brother.
Then, Percy's father headed to the water to regain energy. Not a good idea. While he approached his domain, he felt Zeus' presence. Uh-oh. And so Poseidon got inside the water, too focused on finding his brother so he could check if he was fine to notice the state of the water. Well, you know how water is a good conductor of electricity? Let's just say that Zeus apparently got mad at the creature that was drowning him and released some lightings. Poseidon was electrocuted and was too weak to defend himself.
Gaea made the earth suffocate Piper and Aphrodite, and with dirt in your mouth it's kinda difficult to charmspeak.
Hermes and Artemis ran to help them but their fate was worse than the one of who they were trying to save. Roots came out of everywhere, strangling them, stabbing them, defeating them. Nor Artemis best hunting knives nor Hermes' velocity was able to save them. Demeter could be heard screaming on the background, using all her might to control the roots and take them away from the two gods, to no avail.
It was in her vulnerable state that the goddess of agriculture was attacked by Kampe.
Kampe!
What was that monster doing there? She hadn't been there in real life, or was this real life? Percy didn't quite know, but he knew he was screaming. He had been screaming for a while now, since Ares brave sacrifice. He felt so devastated as he saw everyone falling in battle. He was useless there, just a spectator. And it was all his fault. If he had been there, like he had been when that happened... Wait, did this happen before? No, it was happening in that moment, his friends were dying and Percy was just standing, motionless and broken. He wanted to help. Why couldn't he help? What was happening?
One by one, the gods fell, and without them the demigods were hopeless. Tears streamed down Percy's cheeks. His heart was shattered. His throat was raw. They were there, in front of him. Why couldn't he move? Was this a dream? He hoped so.
No.
No.
'Please no' was all Percy could think as an idea popped into his mind. What if this was a demigod dream? What if this was happening in that exact moment and he was sleeping somewhere far away from them? He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if they all died only because he couldn't wake up.
His cursed fatal flaw burned in his mind, screaming at him. Help. He needed to help them. He had to wake up and help them. He had to-
No.
No.
No.
Annabeth.
'Not her, please, not her'
Percy used all his strength to save her, to move at least. Nothing happened. Panic made his way deeper into his soul.
Annabeth laid in front of him, unmoving. Well, it would be hard to move for you too if you had a spear all the way through your leg and various arrows nailed on your chest. It was a miracle that she was still alive.
Percy hoped she wasn't.
Why did she have to go through that pain? Why did she have to die when he was far enough not to help, but close enough to watch her die? Why her? Why them?
With his heart rent, voice hoarse, mind broken and spirit shattered was that he woke up.
It took him a while to come back to his senses and as he did he remembered his nightmare. No, it wasn't a normal nightmare, it had been Tartarus. Percy now knew that what he saw wasn't real, but that didn't stop the horrifying images from burning against his still closed eyelids.
He couldn't lose himself, his friends- 'who are all actually alive', he had to remind himself- needed him.
His eyes flattered open.
The first thing he took in was the concerned soldier standing close to his bed. Then he saw the door, or what was left of the door, on the floor. He figured that would happen if he screamed at night in a tower full of superheroes. He shrugged it off.
"Hi," was all Percy said to Steve as he sat up. His throat hurt.
"’Hi’? Really? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Oh, don't lie to me. You can't tell me you're fine. You were screaming!" Steve said as he tried to approach the younger man.
"No shit Sherlock," Percy said as he rolled his eyes. He just wanted the images to go away. All the blood, all the death, all the pain. Why couldn't he forget? "If you know the answer the why do you ask on the first place?"
"I don't know, I'm just worried." He was about to say something else but Percy interrupted him sighing.
"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to sound rude, I know you're here because you care so I shouldn't be acting this way towards you. I just had a rough night. Nightmares chase m.e" Percy looked up only to find a very surprised Steve. "What? Was it something that I did?" the soldier shook his head to come back of his stupor.
"No, no," he was quick to answer once he realized what he was asking. "It's just... It seems bad that I didn't even notice you were being rude. I guess the whole new century thing made me just ignore anything different or 'bad'. I didn't realize it was not good until you apologized. It made me wonder how many times I have been polite to people that didn't deserve it without noticing their behavior. I guess I also didn't expect you precisely to apologize for something as little as this, considering you have a criminal record and all..." Steve said, then shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. Percy only nodded in understanding. "Anyway, this wasn't what I was here for. I'll ask again: are you alright?"
"Yeah, I am now. The dream looked so real, though, that I actually believed it was happening. And I couldn't help. That's it."
"Do you want to tell me about it?" Steve asked on a soft voice, obviously trying to comfort the young man in front of him, who still had tears strains on his cheeks. The reaction he got was unexpected. Percy's eyes hardened, he pulled up every single wall he could so that this person didn't see him on a weak state. Steve didn't notice, but the tears disappeared.
But what could Percy answer? He sure couldn't say 'This really powerful being that is the embodiment of hell wants revenge because I managed to escape from him so now he tortures me both physically and psychologically in my sleep. I just saw my friends and family die painful and bloody deaths on the hands of my enemies, who just happen to be Greek monsters, and I could only stare'.
"Thanks, but no."
The soldier didn't press him and Percy was grateful for it. He didn't want to risk snapping and spilling information before he should. The blonde proceeded to leave, finally letting Percy take the refreshing shower he had been daydreaming about. He wanted the water to keep his thoughts straight. At least something about him had to be straight.
When he was done, he checked the clock. A quarter to ten. How convenient.
As promised, Thor entered to his room after knocking fifteen minutes later. His eyes were shining and Percy had trouble stopping himself from dropping everything he held to hug the cute big guy. He was just so cute (like puppy cute, not handsome cute. Well...). Percy only smiled at him.
"Ready?" Percy asked.
"Yes," was all the god managed to answer before questioning him about how he planned to leave. He wasn't meant to leave without the Avengers. There was Thor, but they weren't leaving for a mission. He decided to take care about it later. Maybe he could even control the mist if he tried hard enough. Then there was the question of how to get out, which was one little detail he hadn't thought about.
"Window?" Percy offered.
"As you wish" he started moving forwards to grab Percy, but the demigod slipped from his grasp by turning around and walking to the window. He analyzed the ground for some seconds, maybe half a minute, before opening their escape gate. Thor again made a move to grab him and fly down, but Percy had other plans. He jumped.
You're probably thinking: OMG, HE WAS LIKE A HUNDRED FLOORS UP
Well, they were actually a hundred and eight. Whatever.
Percy was plumping to an untimely death. Not really. He was just using his new powers. Everything was easier now that he realized how he could do basically anything he wanted. In that moment, for example, he seemed to be free-falling but he was controlling the particles of water all around him to soften the fall. When he was close to the ground, he also tried to use the liquids inside himself to stay floating for a second. He couldn't, at least not yet. Well, that's what that day's practice was for.
It made everything easier the fact that there was this huge water body nearby, probably Central Park's lake. Thor didn't seem to know of these powers, though, considering he launched down the window with a look of panic in his face, his hammer barely spinning as his nervousness took over.
He thought Percy had attempted suicide.
Oh.
The raven-haired demigod landed gracefully on the ground and fortunately the Norse god of thunder noticed it and slowed down.
"Why didn't you tell me you would do that, young Percy? I was possessed by panic," Thor said as he finally reached the land next to Percy.
"It's not the first time I do it and you said you knew my whole story so I thought you knew what I could do." He stayed quiet for a couple of seconds. "I didn't remember correctly when I had discovered this power. I just remembered it was after Gaea so it makes sense that you don't know. I'm sorry."
"No need to apologize, hero, but next time I beg you warn me," Thor said, to which Percy nodded.
"Now let the fun begin." He grinned with mischief. "Shall we?"