Chapter Text
It felt like an awakening.
At first, it was the small things, not that different from when he felt the tug in his gut. He started sensing the pulsing of the clouds and of the moisture around him. He could tell that the rain was coming or that Zeus was about to stir up some thunderclouds again.
Great. He had thought. Now I'm becoming a weather forecaster.
These small things didn't bother him at all. At times, they were pretty useful too. Especially when he and Annabeth were having a romantic date and he knew it's going to rain cats and dogs in a minute. All he needed to do was to create a little rain shield on top of them before any rain could ruin Annabeth's perfect hair. Not that she wasn't perfect when her hair was a tumbling mess.
"Seaweed Brain," She laughed when the rain came pouring down a second after he formed the shield. "Quite the way to impress a girl, huh?"
"Just for you." He gleamed as he basked in the praise and pressed a little kiss on her blushing cheeks.
But he should have known that good things never last for him. Day by day, it seemed as though a fog had been slowly lifted. Accompanied by incessant nightmares that wake him up whenever he was on the verge of sleeping, things that were foreign to his senses came quietly crashing down on him like the calm before the storm.
Not that foreign, now that he thought of it. He felt them before too when he choked Akhlys with her poison. He had felt the mellow hum of liquid gushing in her veins, begging him to control it.
But whenever he started feeling relentless, he always sat by the beach, listening to the lapping waves or the little fish that kept babbling on and on about the news of the sea. It was always Little Lord this or Little Lord that, but he didn't mind it and the tranquility of the ocean never failed to ease his worries.
And that was perhaps why he managed to stay sane, or on the contrary, be completely oblivious to what was happening to him. Anyways, he brushed off the odd sensation as a consequence of Tartarus and didn't bother mentioning that to Annabeth.
If she knew, she would have figured it out, and probably freaked out.
It was exactly half a year after the Giant War when things began to settle. Jason, Piper, Frank, and Hazel had decided to stay in Camp Jupiter after the War, mostly because Jason wanted to catch up with some people there and to support Frank, who was their newest Praetor. So, when the Seven, except Leo who was in Ogygia with Calypso, were staying at Camp Half Blood for a small reunion, it was obvious that a Capture the Flag game was necessary for a celebration.
"Jackson," Jason patted Percy's shoulder. "No worries, we are gonna beat you."
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, Grace," Percy smirked, putting on his armor. "Especially not when I have my Wise Girl with me."
Jason wrapped his arm around Piper in defense. "We'll see."
With the Aphrodite, Demeter, Hephaestus, and Ares cabins on Jason's team, Percy's team paled a little in comparison. Most of the minor gods' and goddesses' cabins were not that keen on winning, so he had to rely mostly on the Athena, Apollo, and Hermes cabins. This meant that he just had to wait for Annabeth's orders.
Perks of having a daughter of Athena as your girlfriend.
" - Seaweed Brain," Not a moment later, said girlfriend whacked his head with a helmet when he was banging his head to an unknown rhythm. "Can you at least pretend to be listening?"
He nodded earnestly, which earned him another whack in the head.
"Clearly you're not," Annabeth sighed. "So, you are going to lead the defense squad near the river, okay?" She pointed at a few people that would be on his team. "Don't forget to let them have a go first. It's not often we have the Seven as their training partners."
In the previous training sessions, Chiron had constantly been reminding them to train the newer Campers, who had fewer opportunities to go on Quests, now that the world was no longer at war. That nevertheless made him feel old and useless, as if he were a pawn to be discarded.
Not that he was very far from the truth, but Gods forbid him if he ever said it out loud, lest Zeus threw a thunderbolt at him.
"Aye aye captain," He took the helmet from Annabeth. "We've gotta win, 'Beth. Let's show Grace how this game is played, eh?"
Annabeth huffed at his childishness. "When you two have a go at your petty alpha male battle, don't forget to come back alive." Still, being the best girlfriend there ever would be, at least from Percy's point of view, she gave him a little kiss as per their tradition. "Stay safe, Percy."
When Chiron sounded the horn, Percy dived straight into the bushes, ignoring the curious nymphs, and led his team towards their designated hiding place.
"John," He gestured towards a son of Apollo following him, "If anyone comes, you go first." The boy had a look of grave determination that made Percy smile. "You're gonna do just fine, just remember the skill I taught you."
They did not have to wait for long before the first wave of offense came. Led by Frank in the form of a lion, the five people treaded carefully along the river, wary of any signs of ambush. They clearly didn't notice Percy's team hiding behind a boulder at the side.
"Go!" Percy gestured to his team.
John ran towards the offense with a battle cry, before tripping on an innocent-looking twig. Percy buried his face in his palms.
Gods, was he like that in his first game?
Frank let out a booming roar when he saw Percy's team. Still hiding behind a tree, Percy watched in silence as the Campers fought. Now a seasoned warrior, Frank's movements had become sharp and skilled, unlike when Percy first saw him. However, the same cannot be said for the inexperienced Greek demigods.
A bit too young, he thought, when John held his sword at an angle that would have got him killed instantly when facing a more ferocious monster.
Compared to Annabeth's and his skills when they were at the same age, these Campers' skills were very much lacking. Their blows did not have the fury and desperation that came only after years of being hunted down by deadly monsters.
Then again, he reminded himself, these are the very people that you are trying to protect from that dangerous life.
He held back a laugh when he successfully made a current to trip Frank the Lion, who quickly looked around for signs of Percy Jackson. He noted that it had become a lot easier to control anything with his powers, especially things related to water.
After Tartarus, his mind unhelpfully supplied.
He shook his head to get rid of the thought before focusing on the task of holding Frank back again.
All of a sudden, an overwhelming throbbing flooded his senses, like a tide pouring over him. Before he could comprehend what's going on, the earth shook.
"Was it Gaea?" He heard a Camper shriek while regaining her footing.
"No, but we need to check it out now!" Frank shouted back in his human form and swiftly turned into an eagle. Quickly after him, Percy shot from his feet and darted for the training grounds, where the rumbling seemed to originate from.
When he arrived, the scene before him was terrifying. It seemed as though a huge mouth had opened up in the middle of the ground, threatening to swallow the Camp. Seemingly endless waves of monsters were crawling up from the deep abyss, their heavy bodies racking the earth every time they reached the surface.
"Nico, do you know what's going on?" He heard Jason shout amidst the fighting.
The pale, skinny boy, who looked like he just shadow traveled to the scene, seemed as confused as the others. "Lately something weird was going on in the Underworld." With a wave of his hand, he willed an army of skeletons to fight. "But that's the most I know."
As the soil trembled once more, another batch of monsters came charging towards them.
"Bull face!" Percy pointed his sword towards the familiar leader of the batch of monsters. "Aren't you bored of dying yet?"
The minotaur replied with a furious howl. The blur of action boiled down to three simple actions. Swing. Kick. Slice.
The routine rhythm of a battle brought Percy a strange calmness, accompanied by a foreign thrum in his head. At first, he thought that it was his erratic heartbeat, thumping wildly at the sight of sudden enemies. But no, it was a different pounding, more like a soft lull that resonated from deep within, somewhat similar to that of a bass drum.
The feeling was so distinct that he let his guard down for a moment, a fatal mistake that could cost lives on the battlefield.
"Prissy, three o'clock!"
He slashed his sword towards his right, where an empousa was about to behead him. "Thanks, La Rue!"
The daughter of Ares grunted in acknowledgment as she brought her spear down on an aeterna.
Although the Camp was more prepared to face an attack now, they could not hold up any longer if the monsters kept on appearing. He caught the mess of golden hair in the corner of his eye. "Wise Girl, any ideas on how to close that dam hole?"
She narrowed her eyes at his pathetic attempt at a joke. "Think you would have a better idea, son of the Earthshaker."
That jolted his memory of Mount St. Helen's. Indeed he should have the power to rock the earth enough to block the hole, but the disaster after last time had him thinking twice. "Hazel," He tried to edge closer to the daughter of Pluto. "Do you think you can do anything about the hole?"
She furrowed her brows in confusion, then followed Percy's gaze towards the gigantic crack. "I'll try," He could barely hear her over the deafening battle cry. "Cover me."
With that, Hazel closed her eyes and began to concentrate on her connection with the earth. When Percy saw the clusters of gems growing from the crater, effectively blocking the path of upcoming monsters, he allowed himself to feel a moment of joy.
Annabeth's gonna be proud.
In this split second, he turned to look for his girlfriend. But when he saw her being pinned onto the ground by a giant hellhound, his mind blacked out. Usually, he would hesitate about hurting a hellhound, yet it seemed like something in him snapped after Tartarus. Or perhaps he was being a Seaweed Brain as usual. Or perhaps the lack of sleep was catching up with him.
In all cases, all he could think about was Annabeth.
If anything happened to her -
Percy could not imagine what would happen next.
In his utmost panic, he let his emotions take the better of him, and did an instinctive clench. An atypical pull of his gut told him that he had used his powers, but he couldn't care less. He darted straight for his Wise Girl.
"Annabeth!"
The world around him came to a pause. Maybe his mind got caught between the furry paws of the hellhound and he simply couldn't think. His mind was in overdrive with all the many things that could have happened and did not register the uncanny disappearance of the hellhound.
"Annabeth," He crashed into the ground. His hands were all over her, checking for any signs of injury. "You okay?"
She was covered in golden specks, but she looked as alive as ever. Relief washed over Percy as he let out an unsteady breath.
"I'm fine, but - " She hesitantly squeezed his outstretched palm, and gave him a long hard look. " - what have you done?"
The queer question brought Percy back to reality. All of a sudden, he noticed the eery silence on the battlefield.
The monsters on the field were all gone, replaced by piles of golden dust on the ground. Unfortunate campers who were not fast enough to duck were drenched in their goo, but they were all staring at him in stunned stillness.
Like a deer caught in headlights, he became acutely aware of a pounding sensation in his head, getting louder and louder at each passing second. He recognized it in an instant. It was liquid. It was the blood in their bodies reaching out for him, signaling their owners' quickening heartbeat.
"What was that, Perce?" Nico studied him, his Stygian sword still outstretched. "What did you do to the monsters?"
Except Percy could not comprehend what Nico was saying at all. He could only feel the rhythmic pumping of the boy's blood. It was at this very moment when he realized that the persistent humming in his ears had won.
Just a soft clench, they had told him. And he did just that to all those monsters.
Annabeth's stormy grey eyes told him that she was deep in thought. He looked at her, stuttering. "I - I don't know."
"Son," He heard Chiron calling out for him from the crowd. "Calm down, it's alright. Come here and let's have a talk." The centaur lowered the bow in his hand, and he gazed at Percy with the sorrow of an immortal. He paused to look at the piles of monster dust before trotting towards the Big House.
Percy wanted to scream, NO, look at what happened! But he could only stare at his own making in horror as he obediently followed the Camp Instructor.
Under the scrutinizing gaze of the other Campers, he walked past the now jewel-filled pit. There were no more signs of monsters in it, but the very sight of an enormous trench reminded him of unwanted flashbacks. The time when Annabeth and he saw Tartarus, when he, very heroically, dropped his sword.
What he didn't tell Annabeth was that he heard a voice in his head at that time. A taunting voice that whispered and breathed and rustled at the back of his head, "Hey little hero, don't you know what they say - "
He took in shaky breaths and didn't dare look back at the terrified crowd of half-bloods around him. Even Jason gave him a curious look when he passed by.
" - what comes crawling out of the Pit must go tumbling back down."