³Kingdom Come, heroes of olympus

001.

KINGDOM COME
━━ chapter one

━━ ELISA DIDN'T PRAY. Not to the gods, or God, or anything else that might be out there. The gods, the ones who had been messing with her life since she was born; they had never helped her before, so why would they help her now? Even when Percy was stolen from her six months before, that hadn't changed. She took it upon herself to look; she did what the gods refused to do. She went out looking because of the gods—the gods stole Percy, and for six long months at that.

From December to June, Elisa looked. Or she was helping—building the Argo II—so they could go and find Percy. It was more than the gods could say. She counted each moment over the months, too—the months, the weeks, the days, even down to the amount of hours she had lost with him. It was obsessive, and they say madness and obsession go hand-in-hand. She didn't want to say it was an obsession, but the way she clung to those memories of Percy ...

It was for her own mind—to keep those memories in mind as she searched and searched, and as she found dead-end after dead-end. She kept thinking of his smile, voice, his laugh, the feeling of his arms wrapping around her waist or shoulders. Her own mind went into overdrive to protect itself; she started remembering things about Percy people really couldn't remember—the way he smelled, the smell of ocean air. She knew the smell so well she couldn't stomach walking near Cabin Three ( gods forbid, even inside the cabin ).

She couldn't even escape the memories in anything she did—at the campfire, she would think of how he would always reach over and steal her perfectly toasted marshmallows, or of how he would loudly sing the campfire songs in her ears, or how he would bump their shoulders together to make her move along with the song. And after the campfire, walking back to Cabin Twelve, she would think of him—how he would walk with her, interlock their hands, swing their hands until they had enough momentum until they nearly popped their shoulders out of the sockets. And when they made it to Cabin Twelve, he would hug her ( practically break her bones while at it ) and then he would kiss her, and she would kiss him ( even though Elisa totally wanted to gag even just thinking that; what if someone read her mind? ). Even worse, after that kiss, Elisa would be on a high—it was like someone knocked her upside the head, and if she wasn't so happy with him, she'd be grossed out by herself.

Elisa was used to running—from Durango, from monsters, from Brain Anders, Kronos and his army, even her own feelings, and especially her own mind. And she wasn't a person of many words—words that weren't sarcasm or scathing—but Percy helped her with that. He helped her stay grounded, helped her not be so blinded by her anger—her wrath—

Then he was gone. Like poof. And all that work Elisa had put into helping herself not be so blinded by wrath was thrown out the window. Without him, Elisa felt like only air was beneath her feet. And she experienced that before—years ago, the winter she first met Percy, while flying on the back of some bronze statue's shoulders. If you want to know, that's not a fun feeling. With Percy ... gone, she didn't know what to do. She had only known him since she was fourteen, but after going on two quests, you learn who a person is. And as sad as it sounds, he had been one of the most consistent and good things in her life since ... forever. She had good people in her life; Silas Flowers, but he died protecting her. She had some years with Callum Belshaw, but ... he's also dead. And Nico ... but she hasn't heard from him for almost as long as Percy's been missing; of course, Elisa was worried, but Nico was evasive, and he has been since Bianca's death. There was Grover, Annabeth, Thalia, Drew—people from Camp she knew she could fall back on. But those people who were still with her, she didn't meet them until she met Percy.