With a resounding snapping sound, Percy froze, then dissolved into pieces of ash.
"Interesting. You all have the exact same fear. Why don't I ease your mind, then?"
Solus floated down, stepping in the ash remains of the illusion. Annabeth took a step away, swallowing thickly and blinking through her tears.
"Ah, such a shame. You're all much more affected by the illusion than I thought. Then again, I suppose it is your worst fear... It's that he'll come back and hate you, correct? All of you. He'll repent you for what you've done. You fear you'll have to face your sins to your ex leaders face. Rather peculiar- I thought you guys would be less of cowards."
"That was cruel," Piper hissed, cradling Jason in her arms, tears streaming down her face.
"Was it? Or was I preparing you for what might come?"
"Percy's dead, Solus," Frank spoke for the first time in a while, shaking his head. "No one comes back from the dead."
"And if he never died in the first place? What would you say then?"
There was a hesitant silence as the idea washed over them. It was impossible, they had found him dead. The body, the smell, the blood- it was real.
Right?
With a simple wave of his hand, a mirage appeared- a vision of when Percy had been leaving the White House, over ten years prior.
"So stupid," he muttered, shaking his head with tears streaming down his face. "This is all your fault."
My fault? How ever is it my fault? We're both to blame. Plus, I think this whole thing has been fun!
"You do. I don't."
Percy got to his cabin, slamming the door down and collapsing down onto his bed, staring at his hands, which were shaking and covered with blood and caked-on ash. He blinked away tears, shaking his head. "I need to leave."
Leave? Where to? They'll come searching for you. The gods, too.
"Then I'll make sure they don't."
With a mere wave of his hand, Percy's body appeared- sword, blood and all, with the real Percy standing over him.
Straight through the heart- how horrifying of you, Jackson. I love it.
Percy scowled, shaking his head. "It'll be easier for them this way. I'm leaving for the betterment of everyone."
Just as Nico started to knock on the door, Percy looked up and, with a sad smile, allowed the shadows to swallow him, leaving only the faux corpse behind.
The vision disappeared.
"He's... Alive?" Everyone was too shocked about the vision to even mention that Hazel spoke for the first time in years.
"Who knows anymore- It has been ten years." Solus shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever the case, y'all need to get over it."
Jason coughed, rubbing his nose as he looked up at Solus, shaking his head. "No. I think- I think you're really Percy."
"Jason, even I can tell that's a stupid thought. Percy would never be such an asshole," Leo growled, sneering.
"If you're as amazing as you claim to be, why do you need to conceal your identity? Are you scared?" Piper's eyes flared, anger overcoming her. Annabeth bit her bottom lip nervously.
Solus' eyes flashed dangerously. "To ensure my identity doesn't interfere with the mission. I am merely here to boost strength. Remember the fair natural selection? Remember your strength, McLean- you're stronger than most, but words can't take you everywhere."
"I beg to differ! Reveal yourself!" Piper yelled, her voice guttural and full of charmspeak. Solus didn't bat an eye.
"Kneel," he replied back, his voice barely loud enough to hear, but everyone immediately dropped to their knees, sharing an equal look of shock. Only Aphrodite herself could beat that level of charmspeak- yet alone get the veterans of the Giant War to kneel like play-things. "Volume doesn't mean power. It's the emotions you put behind your charmspeak."
"Reveal yourself!" Piper shouted again, tears welling up in her eyes. "Reveal your true identity, Solus!"
Solus blinked, actually seeming mildly impressed. "Very impressive, McLean. Not quite there yet, but you do have some zing."
Day Ten
Nico paced in the single training rooms, gritting his teeth. His eyes were watering, and all he wanted to do was curl up with Will at home. He'd made a promise, a very strong one, that he wouldn't do it, but...
He studied the blade. All that talk of Percy, the mirage, realizing that they'd been fooled... Percy was alive all these years, and they knew none the better. Nico could have helped him, and yet...
With an outraged cry, he slashed across his upper forearm with the knife, infuriated tears forcing their way from his eyes. The blood came in bountiful quantities, mesmerizing him for several moments before he licked his lips, still entranced, and made another gash next to it, even more dripping down his arm, his body going fuzzy and warm as he felt himself grow dizzy with the blood loss. Just was he moved to make another, a firm grip locked onto his good arm. He jumped, expecting Annabeth or Jason- Definitely not Solus.
"Solus! I-..." Nico didn't know what to say, so instead he tried to defensively hold his bad arm to his chest. Solus merely sighed, letting go of his arm, plucking the dagger from his grasp.
"I'll be taking this." He flicked it across the room, skidding to a halt in front of one of the fighting dummies. "Sit."
Nico felt himself being pushed backwards, landing heavily against a large chair. He swallowed under the scrutinizing stare of his temporary superior.
"Did you get your fill?" Solus questioned, sounding surprisingly docile. Nico swallowed.
"Not... Not yet."
"Take your time. Not... Not too much, though."
Nico allowed himself to relax into the chair, taking a deep breath and focusing on the sting, the pain, the buzzing in his ears, feeling his face flush like it always did. He waited another minute before opening his eyes, looking at Solus curiously.
"Finished?" Nico nodded hesitantly, not sure what to expect. Much to his surprise, Solus moved to his shirt, ripping off one of the sleeves and moving towards Nico. "Gimme your arm."
Solus tied his sleeve off around the wound, doubling up and tying a slightly tighter knot to apply pressure, pressing his hand over it.
"Uhm... Thanks," Nico spoke hesitantly, not really sure what to make of the situation. "Why did you use your shirt? I saw the medical cabinets are stocked-"
"It'll help you realize cutting hurts others more than you."
Nico blinked, shaking his head. "What?"
"This was my favorite shirt, y'know?" When Nico looked down at the sleeve tied around his arm, he realized it had the Led Zeppelin logo on the shoulder, across where the wound was. "I got it at a concert with my mom. I haven't talked to her in almost 17 years- I really miss her."
"Why don't you talk to her? Did she pass?"
"No- Not quite. But I haven't been on Earth for quite some time. But, the memories that I held with this shirt are irreplaceable. Now I'll have to throw it away- or turn it into one of those disgusting long sports tank tops, the ones that show your nipples? Gross. Either way, it's destroyed."
Nico grit his teeth. "If you're trying to make me feel guilty-"
"I am."
Nico choked on his next few words, shaking his head. "Why would you do that?"
"To make you realize cutting hurts others more than you," he repeatedly, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "How have you not realized that? Waking up your boyfriend every few days, messing up his sleep schedule, having him patch you up... But if you didn't, it would be even worse. He'd lose trust as you try to hide it, you'd become distant, and the relationship ends in bitter flames. So why do you do it?"
Nico wanted to be angry- He wanted to yell at him, tell him he didn't know shit, but the very things that were being spoken had already gone through his head a million times.
"I know."
"So why don't you stop?"
"Because I like it too much!" Nico spat, glaring. "I'm too selfish to- to do anything about it!"
"Will's been praying to every god to keep you safe, you know?" Solus spoke quietly, leveling his stare with Nico's. "He stays up worrying for you, knowing that no one here understands the extremities you go through to feel pain, knowing how far you'll take that bit of a rush."
Nico swallowed, his chest suddenly feeling tight. "How do you-?"
Solus grinned slightly, teeth and eyes glinting. "Because I'm the same way. Letting Grace beat the shit out of me for a lesson wasn't purely selfless, y'know? I'm mostly immortal, so I'm not blessed with the anxiety of fleeting moments and the threat of death- not on a daily basis at least. Pain is what lets me feel human. But I don't have friends- So it doesn't hurt anybody but me. And you, di Angelo, are very mortal. Painfully so. So why do you crave pain, if it's not to feel human?"
Nico felt tears well up in his eyes, his hands tightening into fists. "Because... Because it's what I deserve."
"Oh?" Solus inquired, plopping heavily on the floor. "Do elaborate."
Nico grit his teeth, feeling the tears coming in steady flows. "I failed on multiple occasions to help a friend, despite how much they helped me. They suffered much more than they deserved, so I... I'm trying to apologize."
"He doesn't seem like the person to like seeing his friends in pain, whether it be for his cause or not."
Nico grit his teeth. "But-"
Solus sighed. "di Angelo. You're not atoning for anything. You're only hurting the people around you. I... I used to cut as well. And people close to me found out. I stopped as soon as I saw the looks in their eyes- You never looked in Will's eyes while he's patching you up, because you're scared of that look, aren't you?"
Nico swallowed, his entire body shaking. How did he... How could he possibly know all that? He wanted to find it in him to argue, to offer a rebuttal, but all he could do was stare, shaking like a cold kit in the rain.
Solus pushed himself into a standing position with a cheery 'h-yup' noise. "Think it over. And, do me a favor, don't throw that sleeve away."
~
"Valdez," Solus hummed curiously, laying across the table on his stomach and kicking his feet as he watched the small boy work, "you do realize we have an entire arsenal of weapons, correct? So what exactly are you doing?"
"I'm making a sword."
"Well, obviously, but why?"
"Because I want to."
Solus frowned, tilting his head. "Right. Hobby thing, or-?"
"I'm stressed. I like to make things when I'm emotional."
"And yet everything ends up just being thrown in the flames when those emotions peak."
"Is your only purpose in life to piss people off?" Leo grit his teeth, waving the red-hot bar of Damascus steel in Solus' face. He shrugged.
"Maybe. You should learn to chill out. Not everything is worth the time you put into your emotions."
"If you insist on talking my ear off while I work, at least make it comprehendible."
Solus hummed thoughtfully. "Say you have a really high quality bar of gold. Would you turn that bar of gold into screws or nails?"
Leo scoffed, wrinkling his nose. "Of course not. Gold is much too valuable, plus a very malleable metal. It would just compress when hit."
"Right. So picture your emotions as a giant bar of gold. Why do you waste your time making screws- meltdowns or anxiety attacks- when you could put it towards being happy or empathetic- like a gold chain or a ring for a loved one?"
"Because screws and nails are easy to make and don't require any focus."
"So you're just too lazy to be happy?"
"Yep."
"You mortals, I don't understand you one bit. What about you, Levesque? Why don't you talk?"
"She doesn't want to."
"Why not?"
"I dunno- it's not like she told me," Leo glared at Solus, who raised his hands defensively. "Alright alright, Christ. I still think some good old Levesque Love could come in handy with helping Valdez with his temper tantrums. Think it over, aye?"
~
"Zhang, you good? You seem to be the only one who isn't totally messed up here. So what's wrong with you?"
Frank squeezed his eyes shut. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong with me."
"C'mon, there's gotta be something. What's going to stop you when you go into battle? What might cause someone to get hurt?"
Frank bit his bottom lip, rubbing at his nose. "Well, I... I get terribly queasy sometimes."
"Ah, not a fan of gore, huh? I get it, some of these creatures just have too many bodily fluids."
Frank gagged and Solus made a hissing noise. "My bad, my bad. But if you made it through the war, how come it's only bothering you now?"
Frank paused, leaning over the railing of the ship. "I'm assuming you know all about Percy Jackson?"
"Mm."
"Well, when he went to Tartarus... Well, I didn't know that the creatures didn't just turn to dust. So watching something be k-killed so..." Frank gagged, rubbing at his throat, brows creasing as his face drained of color. "Violently. I always have flashbacks of the monsters being killed, and every time I do..." Frank suddenly retched, vomiting over the side of the ship, shuddering. "That happens. It's just..." He threw up again, his body starting to shake from the force of it. "It's so gruesome."
Solus frowned, biting his bottom lip. "I suppose a little bit of manipulation couldn't hurt... Boss, please don't kill me."
With that, he waved his hand over Frank's face.
"You never watched the scrying mirror. You only heard of what happened. The vomiting problem was solved by you finally getting over the sounds you heard."
Frank blinked, looking around a few times. "Did you say something, Solus?"
"Nope," Solus replied, popping the 'p'. "Just admiring the horrifying view with you."
Frank blinked confusedly as Solus walked off, whistling a tune under his breath.