Falling for You

Percy: XII

Percy: XII

"Addition? My lady?" Percy asked hesitantly, adding the title on to the end.

She seemed the type who enjoyed flattery, and hadn't told him to call her anything different. He made a mental note about it as she smiled in a satisfied way.

"Yes." she nodded. "I can only leave this place at night, free to roam most of the earth. During the day, I am often left here to amuse myself. So I collect things. Most of my children, once they are created, stay down here and fetch things for me. Food, trinkets," She cast her gaze over him. "Demigods. You will stay down here with me now. Kill a couple Gods for me here and there. It will be most entertaining."

"My lady," Percy felt a trickle of panic as he spoke, "Tt sounds an honour, but-"

"Good. Now come." she cut him off regally, and swept away.

Percy breathed out heavily.

"My lady, I can't." he said quickly.

She turned around.

"Can't?" Pure ice crept up his spine.

"I can't- I can't live down here." he tried to explain.

"And why not?" she asked in a low, dangerous tone.

"I have places to- to be- I don't belong down here." Percy stressed.

"Seems to me like you do." Nyx said, not so subtly glancing at Apate's lifeless body next to them.

Percy opened his mouth in indignation, before slamming it shut into a thin frown. She was the one who made him do it in the first place, he thought defensively, she couldn't criticise him for it now. Percy looked at the dead Goddess on the floor. His eyes flicked from the metallic pool of gold on the ground to the milky white eyes, open but staring into nothing. He had wanted her to pay. He had. He hadn't even known if he could have do it in the first place. It was just like fighting a Titan, Percy told himself. Should he feel bad? Should he feel proud?

Percy just felt... unsure.

"It's not that," he ended up saying, still trying to explain, "Before I had this curse, the air alone was killing me. I really don't belong here. And... I have people I need to get back to on the surface. I promised. And if I don't get back, monsters will continue to not die, Gaia will rise and-"

"Gaia?" Nyx said, suddenly angry. "What does she have to do with this?"

Percy blinked. She didn't know? He'd presumed they all knew what was going on, chatting about it at some weekly primordial wine tasting. It seemed like a pretty hard thing to miss.

"She's rising." he said slowly, causing Nyx to screech and start pacing, black wings beating harder, rolling waves of darkness flowing over Percy, who shivered before carrying on, "She opened the doors of death nearly a year ago, and chained them down. Monsters don't die properly anymore, they can come back as soon as they're killed. They reform in seconds. There was another Great Prophecy, and we thought it would be in a couple centuries, but instead it just decided to come early. It's about seven demigods, we're trying to stop her."

"Good! Gaia must not rise." Nyx snapped. "She will burn the world, I know her. And if the world burns, what does that leave for the rest of us, hm? Wait-"