9 - This Isn't Good

(A/N) sorry this took a while. I've been off the grid since New Year's, and also not in the best place mentally. I'm trying to get back into my writing rhythm though, so expect more updates from this and perhaps some new stories. I'm also working on my oneshots book, but since I need wifi to access the song lyrics it might be a bit until that's updated.

Remember - nothing I've said is certain. I'm still trying to figure a lot of things out, so please be patient.

Stay safe, and hopefully enjoy this chapter :)

Using the phrase "déjà vu" seemed like the understatement of the century to use when describing how Percy felt when he was falling.

He'd only ever done this once, and even then Annabeth was with him, and he was doing this under completely different circumstances, however all of that did not stop the seemingly endless waves of memories and flashbacks washing over him.

The fall seemed to last forever. Percy had managed to curl himself into an egg shape, bringing his knees to his chest as he kept falling. He squeezed his eyes shut, determined to block out all of the triggers that were causing his flashbacks.

Eventually, he landed in the river Cocytus.
No, bad river! He thought, pleadingly. No, no, this isn't good...

The wails of the damned filled his ears, and Percy tried to manipulate the river before he remembered that  this wasn't regular water, it was out of his control. Needless to say, that did not help quell the extreme panic he felt as he tried to swim out of the cursed river. His ears filled with screams, and among them...

"Annabeth!" He screamed. No, it couldn't be. But it sounded so much like her... "Annabeth! No!" It was all he could do not to break down and give up right there, but some part of his subconscious forced him to keep paddling to the edge of the river. It was too late to help her... the thought broke Percy's heart.

As much as he hated to admit it, Percy soon became numb to Annabeth's wails. They'd hurt him until they couldn't anymore, had shattered his heart so many times...

(A/N heart been broke so many times...)

Eventually, he pulled himself together and swam to the edge of the river Coccyx, and pulled himself up onto the hot red ground. He groaned softly, checking himself for any injuries. So far, there were none to bad.

"Well, well, well!" A high voice rang out, and Percy could have groaned. "Mr Jackson! Long time no see, hon."

"Hello, Kelli." He responded tiredly. He wasn't expecting to run into an old 'friend' so soon, but this was Tartarus. He should have known.

"Aw, you don't seem to happy to see me! Real shame, I thought we had something. Guess we should get this killing over with, hey hon?"
Percy shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. Where the Hades is Apollo? He thought, hoping the sun god hadn't gotten himself into any trouble yet. He'd much rather that happen when Percy was around, so he didn't go get himself hurt.
"Guess I should." He muttered, drawing Riptide. The celestial bronze blade had a red tint to it, though it shimmered with power.

Greeks fight more slashy-slashy, he remembered Jason explaining to Reyna. The pain in his heart throbbed, distracting him from the fight.

He absentmindedly wondered if his fellow ex-praetor had survived the battle that so many of his friends didn't. He hadn't seen her around camp, but truth be told, he hadn't exactly gone looking. She was probably busy...

Kelli took his momentary distraction as an opportunity to lunge for him, knocking Riptide to the ground as she sank her teeth into Percy's left arm. He groaned in pain, and toppled over.

"That was way easier than I thought it would be." Kelli frowned. "If we were on better terms, Perseus, I'd actually worry if you were doing okay. You've been all alone, haven't you? All alone, all of your friends dead."

She kicked him sharply in his side, and it was all Percy could do not to cry out.

"And you couldn't save them. No wonder why not - look at you! Where's all that oomph? Where's all that fight in you, Percy Jackson? It's a real shame to kill you now. I wanted a show."

One of Kelli's wing-vampire-girl things laughed, an awful screechy noise that sounded like a cat getting run over violently by a car right after getting soaked in water with electric eels. Percy flinched. No, it was not a nice laugh. Not like Annabeth's, or Apollo's... he groaned. More pain.

Kelli hissed. "That's a horrible noise."
"You're a horrible noise." Retorted Kelli's other wing-monster.
"Shut up!"

If Percy wasn't currently lying on the floor in pain, he would have laughed. He felt where Kelli had kicked him, wincing slightly. Broken rib, probably.
F u n.

Kelli and her 'girls', as Percy decided to refer to them, were bickering loudly. He lay forgotten, for the moment. He smiled lightly, trying to wriggle back away from them. Eventually the pain got too much, and his vision went hazy. "Gghhhh" he groaned.

Groaning was a mistake. Kelli's eyes flicked over back to Percy, and she smiled evilly.
"Sorry hon, does that hurt?"
She kicked him once again, sharply in the head. Percy's vision, already hazy, blurred and he saw stars.
"Is- is that all you got for me?" He coughed, trying to maintain some dignity. The very least he could to was piss Kelli off. He wasn't gonna let her off that easily.

His thoughts were interrupted by a flash of a golden light hitting and disintegrating both of Kelli's wing-girls.
"Apollo—"
"Miss me, Perce?" The sun god grinned, revealing blindingly white teeth. He punched Kelli, but refrained from disintegrating her. "Thought you'd want to finish this bitch off, eh?"

Percy grinned, and tried to stand up. Bad mistake, Percy! The pain was so bad. He instantly fell backwards, and he felt nauseated. With another groan, Percy passed out, the last thing he saw a flash of light and the sun God's worried face peering down at him.

~~~

"Oh, come on!" Groaned Apollo, as Percy's eyes unfocused and rolled back into his head. He had quite literally saved the son of Poseidon's ass, and he didn't even get a thank you! Rude.

He plonked himself down next to Percy's muscular frame, and looked around. Since he had hit the ground after falling, Apollo hadn't gotten a good chance to do so. In fact, he hadn't gotten a chance to do anything except run to find Percy. He had no clue why Zeus wanted to split them up, all he knew was that Poseidon had to go speak to his son.

So, he was running around, looking for Percy, when he heard this awful screeching noise, like a cockatoo falling out of a tree with a broken wing before hitting the ground and breaking the other wing.
"Shut up!" A feminine voice yelled, and Apollo decided to go check it out. The voice sounded familiar, and Apollo vaguely remembered it as the monster Percy called Kelli.

He figured they were probably with Percy, so he went over there.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. He recalled utterly exhausting his godly strength. Probably made a couple of witty remarks - Apollo was awesomely funny like that. And then Jackson had passed out.

Apollo looked over at the sleeping demigod. His face was relaxed, the pained expression that Percy always wore was gone. The sun god debated waking him up, knowing that Percy didn't sleep well. He decided to wait a couple more minutes before feeding the other some nectar to help him regain consciousness.

With a feather light touch, Apollo traced Percy's cracked ribs. He muttered a light healing chant, trying not to exhaust himself more since the injuries were pretty fresh and wouldn't need too much to be healed. He took his time, smiling softly down at Percy's peaceful demeanour.

It was more often than not that Apollo would watch over Percy as he slept restlessly back at camp. He claimed it was just to make sure the nightmares didn't get to the point that they triggered the son of Poseidon, but really Apollo used the time to examine him with awe.

This was Percy Jackson.

And Apollo had a crush on him.

Well... crush was about the understatement of the century. Apollo felt his heart quicken around Percy, hell, it was racing now. He could never fully focus on anything but Percy, the green-eyed demigod was always somewhere in his mind.

A shrill wail brought Apollo back to reality, and he was reminded that the fate of the world depended on him and Percy being able to reach Kronos before he rose. They were in a hurry, and as much as Apollo didn't want to, he had to wake the unconscious boy so they could save the world.

It was terribly unfair that Percy had to always be the one to save the world, especially after he'd lost most of his friends. But, even though he may think he was, Percy wasn't alone. Apollo would make sure to always protect and be there for him, even if it killed him.

With a sigh, Apollo placed Percy's head in his lap, ignoring the signs of his undying love and focusing on waking the boy up. He shuffled forwards so that Percy's head was propped up against his stomach, and gently took his chin and tilted it downwards so the son of Poseidon's mouth was slightly open. With his free hand, Apollo retrieved some nectar from a small pack and tipped a little bit down the Percy's throat.

Best to open with a joke.

Percy's eyes snapped open, and he coughed and spluttered loudly as he sat up. "I- you- Apollo?"

"Hi, welcome to Chili's."

(1575 words)

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