Recap: Athena smiled at the sight. But deep in the back of her mind she knew that what she did was selfish and wrong. She knew that Percy was a true hero.
And she knew;
It was murder, a death of a true hero.
In the darkness of the Underworld, the personifications of death waited for the soul of a hero to descend.
The soul was pure and was the brightest source of light ever to belong to the underworld.
The two beings struggled to lift their own weight as they flew towards the spirit.
They combined their powers and in their great efforts, released the spirit from its chains of death.
The soul started to freely and chaotically fly around the large cavern of the Underworld.
One of the death deities flashed a limp figure from the Mortal-world. This action seeming to magnetically suck the soul into the body.
The limp body went tense before limping again. The two immortals kneeled on each side of the body, their hands outstretched.
Their hands started to spark slightly, wisps of red coming from them. The sparks from their hands becoming more frequent.
After a few minutes of this, the sparks disappeared as a dull red glow came instead. This dull glow beginning to emit a brighter red color.
The bright red color illuminated the cavern, revealing the handsome face of Thanatos and the pretty face of his sister, Keres.
Yet their usual beautiful faces were not present as a look of struggle was upon them. They both looked up at each other, contemplating when to release.
Keres made an upward nod as if saying 'sup' to her brother. Thanatos knew that she meant for him to countdown.
Thanatos nodded to his sister, showing her he understood. "Three...Two...One," Thanatos said through gritted teeth,"Now!" And with that they both descended their hand onto the body, the glowing red being absorbed by it.
After what seemed like forever for the two, a red aura began to form around the body, starting at the feet. The aura began to climb the barefooted body.
It traveled up the scratched legs and onto the tattered and ripped, shorts and shirt. When the glow finally surrounded the body completely, the death gods stopped.
They both fell backward, onto their backs. "Stay with me brother, we mustn't fade until the boy awakes." Keres panted.
Thanatos just stayed quiet, scaring his sister. "Brother, you cannot fade yet," Keres said, although her usually lulling voice was hoarse.
Thanatos just stayed quiet. Keres felt a lurching sensation in her stomach as she thought her brother had faded.
"Brother?" Keres whispered. Thanatos just raised his arm lazily to show her he hadn't faded, yet.
Keres sighed, but it came out as a pained cough. They both laid there in silence, frequently checking if the other were still alive.
After countless hours of this, the body started to move slowly.
"Keres," Thanatos said sharply, pulling Keres out of her godly slumber. Keres' red eyes opened before sitting up slowly.
Thanatos tried to stand but was forced to his knees by the Underworld's pressure.
Thanatos flickered for a moment before becoming whole again, this not going unnoticed by Keres.
Keres slowly stood up against the gravity of the Underworld. She walked a couple of agonizing steps towards her brother before helping him to his feet.
Once they both were up they leaned against each other.
They stood there for what seemed like days to them but were only a mere five minutes before the eyes of the body awoke.
His usual sea green eyes were a blood red, his usual jet black hair was darker and had dark red streaks running through it.
His beach tan was gone and he had pale skin, not as pale as Hades though, his facial features stayed the same.
His body form mostly stayed the same, except for the now defined muscle on his upper and lower body.
He stood up easily under the pressure before he noticed the two weak death gods.
Keres smiled a strained smile, "Good to finally meet you, Perseus."
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Percy woke up feeling different. He looked around a little before realizing he was indeed in the Underworld.
'Then why did he still have a body?' He thought questioningly. He looked around a little before realizing the Underworld is usually darker.
He opened and closed his eyes obnoxiously before rubbing them. He opened his eyes again and it still looked brighter than last time he was there.
He took a full 180, his eyes landing on two deities. He looked at them confusingly before the female of the two smiled at him.
"Good to finally meet you, Perseus." the woman said. Percy reached down to grab his pen before realizing he didn't have it.
He wondered why his pen didn't return to him.
His gaze returned to the beautiful women in front of him. "Who are you guys?" he asked.
The women straightened a little before nudging the man to straighten himself as well.
The man straightened before answering Percy, "I am Thanatos, god of death," the women hit Thanatos on the arm, "well, peaceful death that is." the women nodded in acceptance of Thanatos' answer.
Percy wasn't all that surprised that the death god was here, although he didn't really have a peaceful death now did he?
As he was about to relay his question on how his death was peaceful the woman interrupted him.
"And I am Keres, sister of this idiot," She started, pointing her thumb at Thanatos, "and goddess of painful death."
'Ahh, so that was why she was here, she was painful death and he guessed since Thanatos was known as the personification of death, that was why he was here.' Percy thought.
The thought of why he was not dead in the Underworld when he had clearly died confused him.
"So how am I alive if I know for a fact I got stabbed in the neck," Percy asked. Percy unconsciously touched the spot where he was stabbed.
"Well, we brought you back to life, although you did change a little bit like your eyes are a different color and you have red streaks in your hair that's basically it," Thanatos said.
Percy touched his hair before asking his next question. "So why are you guys still here then?"
The two immortals sighed, "we are fading" Keres said before she flickered, "like that." She said pointing to herself.
"And we wanted a true hero, like yourself to have slight control over death," Thanatos added.
Percy was slightly shocked, death was literally offering him to control death.
"Why should I accept?" Percy questioned.
"I dunno, revenge, personal issues, never dying, never fading, power, use for good or evil, we really couldn't care but we trust your judgment," Keres said thoughtfully.
Percy thought about it a little before answering yes.
"Great, we will just do a little ritual and then we can peacefully fade. Thanatos said.
"Hold on, what did you mean by I can't fade or die?" Percy asked quickly.
Keres sighed, "You are mortal so you cannot fade, and you will have control over death, so technically you can't die."
"Cool," Percy answered simply. "And one more thing, you gain more power by how many peaceful deaths you give to mortals or immortals," Thanatos said.
"And when you inflict painful deaths as well," Keres added.
Percy nodded before the two gods performed the ritual. They took their places next to him before a new red glow formed in their hands.
They both murmured quietly before their eyes became a solid black. They rose their hands in unison, they shot the red glow above Percy, creating a large red glowing ball that Cerebus would've loved to play with.
They slowly lowered their hands, the glowing power ball lowering itself onto Percy.
Red hot pain filled Percy's systems as the orb made contact with his head. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth to stop himself from screaming.
The orb of power was already halfway down but Percy couldn't take it anymore.
He screamed till he couldn't anymore, tears falling down his eyes. When the orb finally touched the ground the Underworld lit up as it exploded.
The light started to dim until there was only a burnt circle surrounding a figure.
The death gods nowhere to be found. The figure was cloaked in a dark cloak with a hood that covered his head. The figure had large black wings with a total wingspan of ten feet.
Each wing was five foot long and the top of the feathers were a dark red.
The figure had a black stygian iron chest plate and black stygian iron leggings and combat boots.
He had black gauntlets and black gloves, he held no weapon but the power he held could put a minor god on his or her's knees.
He had a glowing red aura and when he looked up it was revealed that he had glowing red irises and black scleras(the white part of the eye).
He slowly stood up straight, "That was sooo awesome" he whispered to himself.
He morphed back into his regular form, which his clothes were still ripped and walked along the river bank of the Styx.
He thought about taking another dip but didn't know if he had another person who could be his mortal anchor.
Being the person he is, he thought 'why not?' and slowly walked closer to the cold water of the Styx.
The painful waters were nothing compared to what he just went through. He didn't even flinch as he took his first step.
He walked painfully slow into the Styx for any monsters watching. When he was fully submerged he concentrated on an area of his body.
Under his right armpit.
He slowly opened his eyes to find himself on the bottom of the river. He waited for the image of someone to pull him out of the river.
He waited for agonizing hours in the Styx, the pain finally starting to grasp him.
An image of something started to appear. He couldn't make it out, it was too blurry as if it hadn't ever happened before.
He stared at the image, waiting for it to appear clearly. The water started to burn like acid upon his skin.
The pixels of the image started to concentrate enough for him to look at it.
When all of the pixels were concentrated so the image was clear, Percy became confused.
The image, he just didn't know how.
The image was no one.
Just the ledge of the river bank. He outstretched his arm before grasping onto the ledge.
He pulled himself up out of the acid water. He instant-dried himself before collapsing in pain.
The acid like water had burned his skin, although thankfully only his skin was damaged.
He carefully pushed himself off of his chest and onto his feet. He winced in pain as the cold-stoney ground pierced the skin of his foot.
He looked back at the Styx, it was weird that no one had come to help him out of the water, to be his mortal anchor.
He thought at least maybe his mom would show herself. She still loved him... right?
He mentally slapped himself at the question, of course, his mom loved him.
With great effort to not agitate his skin, he wobbled around the Styx.
He had only moved a couple hundred yards and his feet had already blistered.
When his hope had diminished he spotted Charon's boat. With renewed vigor he wobbled over to where Charon's boat had docked, letting souls off.
The souls flew around before splitting off, in a few years they may be judged if they wanted to be.
The few who couldn't fly because of their horrible acts in their lives were led by a large skeleton.
The skeleton had huge bones and ripped out one of its ribs as its weapon.
Percy focused back onto Charon, walking over to him, legs wider than usual.
When Charon looked at Percy he fell out of the boat and onto the dock.
Percy stopped walking before looking at Charon curiously.
When Charon got back onto his feet he took a step back in fear.
Percy raised his eyebrow in confusion, "Umm... Charon, you deal with ghosts every day, why am I so scary?"
Charon gulped before standing up a little straighter, "Well I had guided your soul to the Underworld but you flew off."
Percy nodded understanding Charon's confusion, "Yeah well, you know me, breaking laws and doing the impossible."
Charon didn't seem too surprised at hearing this information. Percy was about to say another thing but Charon clutching his head in pain cut him off.
"You okay Charon?"
"That light you gave off gave me a bloody headache," Charon grunted. Percy was a little confused but decided it was just something about the Underworld.
"So can you give me a ride back to the Upper-world?" Percy asked. Charon seemed hesitant but shook it off, "Ahh, I'm going there any way to grab the rest of the souls, I guess you can tag along.
Percy smiled in appreciation before climbing into the boat.
As Charon rowed along Percy asked many questions to which Charon would just ignore.
When they reached the dock to the Upper-world, Percy said his thanks before walking to the exit.
He smiled a little. But after thinking of what he could do and what he would do to Theater Queen and the rest of the Olympians.
His smile became a grin.
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