𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒙𝒙𝒙𝒊𝒗.

―✧―

𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊.

i looked up to see the sad silvery eyes of bob the titan. his presence only made me feel worse, knowing that we could've told him at any point. maybe he would've killed us, or maybe he would've actually became our friend.

now i'd never know.

"i'm sorry," i told him. "i'm so sorry."

bob touched my forehead, "owie."

the world turned silver for a moment, before returning to the dark tartarus landscape. i saw annabeth leaning over someone, my mind flashing back to cayden's death.

"no," i muttered, getting up so fast i fell back down.

bob slung me over his shoulder and carried me over to percy and annabeth. i stared at percy. cuts littered his face and arms. smoke seemed to curl off of his arms, annabeth's tears turning to steam as they hit him.

"percy," i fell over him. "what's wrong with him? what happened?"

i wiped the sweat and dust from his eyes, pressing my forehead to his. percy's hand twitched as if he tried to raise it but didn't have the energy to. i cried softly, lacing my fingers through his.

"you're okay. you're gonna be okay," i promised him, kissing him softly.

"lots of curses," bob said, answered my previous question. "percy has done bad things to monsters."

"can you fix him?" annabeth asked. "like you did with my blindness? fix percy."

he frowned, picking at him nametag.

i peeled away from percy to look at the silver titan. "bob, please—"

"iapetus," bob said, his voice a low rumble. "before bob. it was iapetus."

"i like bob better," i told him. "which do you like?"

the titan regarded me with his pure silver eyes. "I do not know anymore."

he crouched next to me and annabeth, and studied percy. bob's face looked haggard and careworn, as if he suddenly felt the weight of all his centuries.

"i promised," he murmured. "nico asked me to help. to help percy. and to help his mom. i do not think iapetus or bob likes breaking promises." he touched percy's forehead.

"owie," the titan murmured. "very big owie."

percy's eyes cleared, just slightly. he tried to look up at bob, but his head lolled on his chest.

"bob cannot cure this," bob said. "too much poison. too many curses piled up."

i pulled percy's head on my shoulder, leaning against him. i wanted to crush him in a hug, but i doubted that would be good for him.