Thalia Grace was glowering at some unseen foe hidden in the woods. It could've been a monster, a god, even a titan for all she cared- she just needed to be left alone. Of course, that stupid little Angel Boy couldn't let her have even a moment of peace. "'Sup. You in an argument? Did your fellow pine trees call you names and now you're mad at them?" Nico hung upside down, in a crouching position. He was dangling from a branch behind Thalia, but she could tell that despite the annoying persona he'd adopted, he was thinking about the exact same things as she was.
"Shut your pomegranate-hole, Corpse Face," she retorted, poking fun at his hatred for the fruit. She could feel him scowling behind her, his glare burning into the back of her head, but she just sighed. The small smirk disappeared from her face, replaced with a thin line across the bottom of her face. "But seriously...Death Breath, do you think we'll ever get a break? They just keep sending us out- again and again.
"I know you've been there, too, but Percy only jumped for Annabeth, only lived for Annabeth...and now she's gone. He doesn't have anything to tie him to this world anymore, and that place...We both know that he's hiding something about what happened down there- how can we possibly be sure that he's still sane if he refuses to share whatever's bothering him?" Nico walked up beside her.
"Thals...We both know he isn't sane. Not one demigod ever is. My only worry is how bad it is. He's been through more than both of us, Thalia, and if he unlocked some secret power down there, something he doesn't want to use again- then it's something evil."
Thalia opened her mouth to yell at him, scream at him for saying such a thing about Percy, but he held up a hand. "I'm not saying Percy is evil. It's just that...He's powerful, and if he learned, or even speculated that there was more out there for him than hurricanes and tidal waves...he would've used it. We both know he would have! If it saved Annabeth, he'd do anything." Nico's tone took on an ominous feel when he said that.
The cousins sat in silence for a few moments.
"We might not all make it. But if anyone dies...I doubt he can handle any more death. I'm scared for him."
Thalia snorted. "Ha! You? Scared? This must be really bad then..." She said it as if she were joking, but her words held no humor in them.
Nico twisted his ring, willing his sword to appear. He stared at the void-like blade, searching for a reflection that wasn't there. Thalia's shoulders sagged. "That bad, huh?" Nico pressed the tip of his sword into the dirt, creating a patch of wilted greenery.
"There was someone down there, on the brink of Chaos, literally. Akhlys, goddess of misery. She said that I was...It doesn't matter. Not right now. What I'm saying is, I only ran into her by chance. Percy and Annabeth would've needed to seek her out and request Death Mist."
Thalia gasped. "You think Percy was provoked."
The Hades-spawn nodded. "Annabeth was most likely threatened, harmed. He...he would've done anything. And I think, just maybe, he sacrificed a bit of his humanity down there. His morals, his center, everything about him was altered, but the main thing that was just...off about him was that spark in his eye. Not a good spark, like in those horrid romance movies, but one where..."
Nico locked eyes with Thalia. "He's insane. Deep down, he knows it. I know it. Everyone can see it. The primal part of a person is terrified by it, but the logical part, that's what makes him so endearing. He's still Percy, just with a fundamental change in his mentality- one that he doesn't show around other people."
"You can't just say that!" Thalia hissed. "Do you even know what you're suggesting? Kelp Head...he's the best person I've ever known. He wouldn't do something that drastic."
"That's the exact kind of thinking that is blocking us from understanding. Percy, after everything he's gone through, has got to be damaged. He's depressed, anxious, erratic, prone to self destructive behavior, an insomniac; he longs for closure, something he won't get until the day he dies. He'll make it through this war. I just don't know how much longer he'll last afterwards. These 'Avengers' are helping him, and I've tried explaining some of his past to them, up until the Giant War- that's why I want your help."
Nico stood up, resting an ice cold hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Their presence is requisite to his survival. They are outsiders, mortals. If they know about him, and still want to stick around, we can get him...I don't know, treatment, therapy, a support system- something. He's dying Thalia. Not physically, yet, but if he continues down this path, he'll be nothing but a corpse, the walking dead, just waiting for a chance to free his soul from his torturous existence on this plane."
Thalia sobbed, the tears in her eyes spilling over onto her cheeks. "You're saying he's suicidal, Nico. I don't know if I can deal with that. And that's selfish of me, I'm well aware, but that man, that boy, is my little cousin, someone who's given everything he has and more for people he doesn't even know. Even thinking about it-" A pained whimper escaped her lips, and she leapt at Nico, squeezing the life out of him.
Her wails and tears were swallowed by his aviator's jacket. She howled with the coming of a million realizations.
She pulled away, crumpling to the ground in a rare show of helplessness, weakness, that no daughter of Zeus should show, no Hunter of Artemis should show. But she wasn't any of those things right now. In the place of the strong, fierce, confident and snarky young woman was a small broken child, a girl who grew up too quickly and missed out on a childhood, weeping tears of lamentation.
An equally shattered boy sat beside her, closed in on himself. He was normally numb with his emotions, but now he was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar pang of sadness and a lust for retribution against those who wronged his cousin. He had been isolated, cast away, abandoned countless times. He was judged, taken advantage of, manipulated.
She was betrayed, thrown out, and dragged back in. She was hurt and stung and worn away at by the storms her father created, then the throbbing that remained after in the form of heavy mist.
Both were filled with hatred and anger. Both were filled with despair and misery. Both held unimaginable torment. Both had memories they'd rather forget, but clung to because no one else would remember for them. Both wanted to save him.
The boy who was thrown headfirst onto land without a clue how to breathe. Then, upon learning, was discarded back into the deep end, an ocean of grief and longing awaiting him, so different from what he'd had before he was taken. So much worse.
"Nico."
Electric blue clashed with decaying black.
"We have to save him," the first wept, "We have to teach him how to love, how to live again."
A pact was made that night. A promise, to teach a cursed soul how to breathe once more. Sworn to be fulfilled until their dying breaths and thereafter, and sealed with the tears and blood of all their long years put together.
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All hail, Perseus Jackson, son of Sally Jackson and Poseidon, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father and Lord of Horses; hail the son of the sea god, loyal harbinger and bearer of harrowing trials that were punishment for actions not his own. He who bore the sky, the curses, the torture, and a destiny befitting of thousands of heroes put together. The legend who never died, who was not only left behind, but chose to remain longer to preserve the peace and ensure the protection of those unable to do what he could. No matter the agony it put him through.
That was what a true hero was. He was a champion, a defender, an avenger, a shield; he was a legend- the only one who didn't die at the end of his story. He didn't suffer his torturous ending at the hands of Death, kind or cruel in nature. No, he suffered it by the hands of Life, a corporeality that he never wanted, not when they didn't get the same luxury.
He was a pillar. He was a sword. He was a hurricane. He was an earthquake.
He was damnation.
He was forgiveness.
But above all, he was justice.
All hail.