Sophie's PoV
It felt like months had passed. Wondering the darkness trying to connect with Nico or Percy. Nothing seemed to work. Navigating through dreams had proven to be harder than I originally thought. Nothing made sense. To make matters worse.
I had never felt more uncomfortable in my entire life.
My body ached.
Despite having been unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time, I could feel my muscles ache with stiffness. If that wasnt enough every few minutes I could feel my child kicks a variety of essential organs just for the fun of it. I could almost feel like skin stretch unbearably under Zeus' curse as my child grew at an alarming rate racing towards their due date.
Quite frankly everything sucked!
At this stage I just wanted to wake up. In the Hope's that maybe just maybe, if I could get up and stretch my muscles everything would hurt a little less.
I was utterly ready to let go. To give up and hope that I could wake up and get some relief.
When suddenly it happened. All though all my birthdays had come at once, I saw him.
Nico.
He was beaten rather badly, open wounds on his lower lip and in the centre if his left eyebrow. This hair tossed and messy. His clothes torn and damaged.
He looked like.hed been through hell.
Yet, my heart sang for joy at the mere sight of him, the darkness around us began to shape itself into some.sort of deserted island. With withered and decaying palm trees, there was no sign of life. To the left of nico, I spotted percy, curled up sleeping. He didn't look any better than nico. They'd clearly been through hell.
"Hello there" I all but whispered as I tried to approach nico. Unsure of if he could see me at all.
"Soph?" He gasped, taking me ghost like appearance. "What happened?"
"I'm not dead if that's what your thinking, you're alseep. I asked Morpheus to connect our dreams." He looked at me as though I'd lost all semblance of sense. "I needed to see you okay, I needed to make sure you were okay. I think in all my worry I slipped into some sort of comatose, I was just lost in darkness, able to hear what was happening around me but unable to move or reply"
Nico looked at me with pure worry taking over his face. "Your in a coma?" He proclaimed, running his hand stressful through his hair. The worried look of his face broke my heart.
"Eh, I guess so yeah" I laughed, trying to ease the tension that was steadily growing. "Look, i don't know how much time we have. I presume you're dreaming if I've been able to connect with you finally. we need to come up with a plan, a way to get you back on the Aragon II"
I can't help but study Nico's face hoping he caught on to the urgency of the situation. I can feel how weak i am and don't know how much time i could manage to keep the link between our dreams alive. All I know is I need to keep some energy in receive so that i can force myself to wake after our conversation.
"It's been weeks Soph, me and Percy have been trapped on an island near the sea of monsters. I tried to shadow travel but... I'm not strong enough. It's like this place is draining our energy. Percy tried summoning help from Poseidon's realm but even he's having issues." Nico sighs in defeat. I finally got a good look at him, his eye sunken into their sockets, his complexation almost grey. clear scabs and bruises littered his face and arms. I can tell he's been through hell since they were separated from the rest of us. I almost don't want to know what they've had to endure. Knowing wouldn't make anything better, there's nothing i can do from where i am. After all I'm not really with him. I can't do anything productive to help apart given my two cents towards a game plan.
"There as to be a way to get you both off that island" I all but whine.
"We'll think of something, there's no way I'm letting you finish this quest without me" I can't help but smile at his determination. I could tell what he really meant though, he wasn't letting me have this kid without him and for that I was utterly grateful because the truth is I am terrified. I can't help it. I've been forced into this scenario by the gods, by Hera and Zeus. I never wanted to be a teen mom, but I'll be damned now if the gods even try to hurt my kid after they basically forced me and Nico into this scenario. I need to come up with a way to get them out of there. I need to find a way to get Nico back cause, as much as I hate to admit it, I need him. he's my rock and i know deep down I can't do this without him.
"Wait...Percy journeyed to the sea of monsters years ago when we were kids, he had to get onto Luke's ship at one stage...Hippocampus were sent to help him. It's a barely and idea and it might not work but...what if I got Leo to stop the ship for a few days. drop anchor and call on dad to send some to find you two? Yous mightn't be able to get off the island but we might be able to send you help from our location."
"I dunno, if we can't get off the island, what if they can't it?" Nico was right. It was slim chance. was it worth the risk? In order to come up with a plan,I need to know everything that's happened, i need to try and figure out a potential location for where they are. Here's hoping Annabeth's tutoring sessions on mythology over the years comes in handy. "Neeks, i need you to tell me everything that's happened since we were separated. "
Nico's P.O.V
I couldn't stomach the look of desperation on her face. she seemed so fragile. A shadow of her former self. I just wanted to hold her close and let her know it'd be okay that me and percy would be safe and find a way back to her but I couldn't.
How could i make a promise i had no idea if i could keep?
how could i tell her what had happened these last few weeks? the torture of this isolation with only Percy to keep me sane. The conflicting feels boiling inside me. tearing me apart. messing with my head. Never mind our run in with the mother of monsters herself on the first night. she'd be worried sick, well sicker than she already was. clearly she's worried herself so much she ended up in this comatose state to begin with.
From what i could remember the half woman half viper had been trapped in the depth of Tartarus after having been defeated by Percy when he was twelve. Sophie had retold the story to me almost a hundred times. how he's been on a quest with Annabeth and Grover to find Zues' bolt and they found their way to the Gateway Arch, where they encounter Echidna, who also had the Chimera, one of her demon spawn with her, when she managed to isolate Percy from the others and percy narrowly escaped the attack. Soph always seemed so shaken when she shared information from Percy's adventures back in cabin thirteen. how could i break it to her that we had to reface one of the monsters that always seemed to scare her the most? i couldn't exactly withhold everything from her. she needed information so that we could come up with an actual plan. I wish i could just shadow travel so that i didn't have to break this to her. Maybe i could sugar coat the encounter?
Looking up to find her nervous gaze fixed on me was enough to make me cave.
I wasn't looking forward to how this could pan out.
"We landed on this island after the storm, we couldn't see any sign of the ship on the horizon. the tick vegetation on the island meant that it took days to track from one side of the island to the other. walking around the circumference of the island wasn't a possibility as the beaches didn't connect even when the tide was out. Percy was too weak to even try to control the water to let us pass so traveling through the centre of the island was the only option." i began nervously. hoping she wouldn't catch on to the fact i was withholding information.
"Were they filled with monsters?" she queried.
"What? no? why?" i panicked.
"Nico, you're covered in cuts and bruises, you look wrecked. Percy over there looks equally as terrible-"
"Thanks for the compliment princess" I laughed, trying my best to distract her from my nervous demeanour.
"Oh don't play with me Di Angelo! I know when you're hiding something. So tell me, how many"
"How many what?"
"How many monsters have you had to fight on that gods forsaken island!"
"One."
"One?" She gasped, jaw hanging wide open.
"One!" i sighed, scratching the back on my head.
She looked at me, calculating my every move. as though she was looking for some sort of signal that I was lying to her.
"Nico, who did yous face?" She asked, calming her breathing. In truth, I was terrified of her oncoming reaction.
"Echidna." I replied anxiously. the look on her face made me wish I was back battling the mother of monsters herself.
"YOU FACED THE BLOODY MOTHER OF MOSTERS AND YOU'RE ONLY TELLING ME!" she screamed! " Echidna! Half woman, half snake, Echidna. Lived in a caved and lured men to their deaths, Echidna. Nearly poisoned Percy on the Gateway arch with a chihuahua, Echidna!"
"Yeah, that Echidna" i state in response.
"But...but she should still me tartarus!" she cried out in frustration with a hint of confusion.
"I know"
"It's only been... what? seven years? Surely she should still be regenerating in the pits. how, how is she back? powerful monsters like her should take decades to rejuvenate after being defeated. Nico, I don't like this! Something big is happening and it has to be connected to Hera's capture."
Looking out on the horizon, watching the moon beams dance across the ocean waves, i couldn't help but sigh, she was right. this wasn't any accident that we ended up on this island.
"we need to get you both off that island Neeks. I don't have a good feeling about this, if the mother of monsters came back and was isolated on an island in the middle of the ocean...it probably wasn't an accident. what...what if she's given birth to something new. something we don't know how to defeat yet?"
She was right, i'd already thought about this possiblity. it was the onlything that made sense to me. there had to be a reason why she was on this island. she must have been protecting something. there was only one thing on my mind at this point, the possibility that somewhere on this island was a creature about to hatch and it might be draining our energy to feed itself now that it's mother had been defeated.
"If you're right, and i fear you might be... we're in a lot more trouble than i had orginally thought." With a sickening feeling in the depths of my stomach, i knew one thing, we need to get off this island and we need to do it as soon as possible.
"Nico, look i think you need to wake Percy and start building a raft, you need to get off that island as quick as possible. The longer you are both their the weaker you are gonna get. if my gut instinct is right whatever echidna had given birth to is draining your energy to make itself stronger. that's why you fee so weak you need to get into the open sea so that that yous can get actual help. I'll do my best to get some hippocampi to you as soon as-" suddenly a pained look washed over Soph's face, a small whimper escaped her lips.
"Soph? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"There's something wrong, really wrong Neeks. It hurts. it really hurts. I... i dunno if i'm gonna be much help to you."
I could barley her her between her pained cries as the scenery around us began to fade. her voice became distant, till i was surrounded by blinding white light. my eyelids heavy as they fought against the intrusive blinding light.
"Bonehead can you wake up, somethings coming!" Percy spat through gritted teeth.
with a jolt, i woke up back on the beach, Soph nowhere in sight. Percy staring at me with worry clearly cast over his facial features. the sickening sound of a wailing creature deep within the heart of the island echoed out into the night air. yet, i couldn't focus on the dangers of the island. my mind was distracted with worry for Soph and our baby. what if something terrible was happening and i wasn't there for her. Percy kept looking towards the forest that surrounded us. we needed to get away. we needed to get off this island now. We didn't have time to make a raft. we needed to get to her.
"We need to get off this island. Somethings wrong with Soph. i... i think it might be something to do with the baby. we need to find them, now!"
With that, with my last semblance of strength i grabbed onto his arm and ran for the nearest shadow, praying that after all this time, i could get back to her, my clouded feelings for Percy aside, i needed to be there for Soph of that i was certain. i needed to get back to my best friend, my love. With her in mind, i gave way to the shadows, letting them surround me. surround us. keeping the decks on the aragon II pictured clearly in my mind. I just hoped i made it in time.
A/N: Well...that took me a while, i hope you enjoyed this chapter it has truly been a while since i last updated this story. this truth is I've had serious writers block, I also realised how long it's been since i read the original Percy Jackson and hero of Olympus series. I realise that the characters are well out of character and i hope you can all forgive me for that. As i feel how i've written them best suits this tale. An other apology i feel i owe you all is the time you have had to wait between chapters, truly its mainly a result of sever writer block and a case of lack of inspiration to finish the story but i'm not gonna stop till i finish the story no matter how long it takes me to finish it and i hope you can all bare with me over whatever period of time that takes.
It took being sick with covid and confined to my best to come up with this chapter and i hope you all enjoy, perhaps now i might have found a trail of inspiration to follow over the next few weeks, I don't know when the next chapter will come along but hopefully it wont be too long.
In the meantime however, i thought that i'd do a first for me and maybe do a Q&A with myself and from the perspective of Sophia. So if yous wanna comment below questions for me or our main OC. I'll dedicate the following chapter to answering your questions while i start to work on the next proper chapter. think of the Q&A session as a filler chapter. some of their queries may be answered with short mini scenes, who knows. there's an endless list of possibilities. Anyway. Thank you for reading and again apologies for taking so long.