Hero; Then and Now

Chapter One: Waking Up

Perseus' POV

I don't know if you've ever been pulled apart in two different directions whilst also being pushed together and compacted down into a previous version of yourself – but let me tell you...

It fucking hurts.

The moments that followed Luke's final words were inexplicable – mainly because I was in too much pain to fully comprehend anything other than the cells in my body being forced to merge into one another, becoming smaller and smaller until they were half the size they should be before becoming one whole cell and repeating the process over and over again. If you've ever experienced growing pains then you know where and how it hurts, but you won't even come close to its intensity.

I felt the blessing of Lady Styx being overwhelmed by the assault, I felt as everything I'd built up for the past three years being targeted and nullified – my height, my physique, even my half-soul itself. The only thing that remained as it was were my memories, my brainpower, and my instincts. But they were to preoccupied with the blinding, pure agony that even Acheron would be proud of – to be of any use.

I was stuck, in that room, in a position where I clenched all of my muscles, where I had curled in upon myself in an attempt to alleviate the pain, to hold it back even when I knew my mind wouldn't comprehend anything more than what it already was. I was beyond my limit, and I stayed that way – incapable of conscious thought or movement, racked with spasms beyond my control – for a time that could have been a single second – or a millennia.

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Eventually, the pain died down. It was a slow process, my body being so weak as it currently was had no ways of relieving the pressure that had built up, but it was definitely leaving my mind – weather that was me getting used to it, or weather it was actually fading I had no idea, but I was grateful beyond relief either way.

My mind had been broken, and for now, I just wanted to revel in the ever so slight consolation that was the warm, comfortable sensation of lying on a soft mattress, curled up, pressing against the pillows. I may be incapable of falling asleep, but I could at the very least begin to rest.

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At some point I must have fallen asleep in that bed. I don't remember how long it took, what I was conscious of, was the dream that followed. I saw everything id just been apart of, from before the agony. I saw the war; I saw the deaths of friends. Charles Beckendorf holding his hand over his watch, Michael shouting at me to use the water pipes under the bridge, and Silena wearing Clarisse's armour with acid plastered across her pain-twisted, guilty face as she showed us the spy amulet. I saw the damage, the injuries of countless people and the scream Luke made as the dagger I gave him plunged its way into his flesh. I saw the moment that the blade cursed with his own promise reaped the soul of a true hero. His mind was twisted and misled, but his heart had always been in the right place. Everything he did, was for the sake of us, of those heroes that fell in battle doing everything they could to appease their godly family but getting nothing in return.

I saw other things too, things that I hadn't seen. I saw Annabeth's face grow old with time, I saw Clarisse as her strength waxed and waned throughout a good long life. I saw Nico Di Angelo spending time with a young dark-skinned girl I didn't know and Will Solace, and I saw Thalia's unageing face grow more and more tired with grief and determination.

Not long after, I saw gravestones, the markers showing off the names of my mom, Sally Blofis and my stepdad, Paul. Another name was written beside theirs – Estelle Sarent, next to a grave I assume was meant for their partner.