Blinded By Our Own Flaws

~Eight~

"Maybe the only way you can get to heaven is through hell,"

~{•}~

What did you do when everything you thought you knew started unraveling? It was like the thread used to wave existence was coming undone.

Maybe it was bound to happen, maybe it was the fates big plan all along, maybe that was how his life would always turn out, but Percy Jackson still had no clue what to do about it.

He knew it was only a matter of time before someone else was caught. What had started as a quest full of nine of them had already dwindled down to four. It had been not more than a week, and they had already been halved.

Something bigger was at play, he knew it. Someone was aiming for them in an order. Whoever was doing this had motive, but Percy had no clue what it was.

Nico had already been preoccupied that was he wouldn't hold a grudge when Will got cocky. Travis had already been an overthinker when Katie needed to be calmed down. Whoever did this didn't want to hurt them, just change them.

Whoever did this was still human, but that just seemed to make them more dangerous.

Percy leaned his head back against the dusty wall. Annabeth was helping Conner with Thalia, the other four nonflawed demigods who knows where.

"Hey." Grover walked in and sat next to Percy, not saying much more than that. Percy murmured a small "hi" and Grover just continued. "Thought you could use a friend,"

They sat in silence for a long moment, which reminded Percy of their time during the first war. They used to always do this, before the seven, before the romans, before even Annabeth, it had been Percy and Grover. They could tell each other anything, fatal flaws wouldn't change that.

"Grover, what do we do?" Percy finally asked.

"I don't know," Grover replied. "We try, and we hope we can figure out what to do next. We have to work with what we got, find strengths in each other even if flaws leave—or come back. I don't really know how to describe this,"

"Everything used to be so simple, even after we found out my dad was Poseidon. It was just me, you, and Annabeth. We were young and naive, I'd give anything to go back to that. A life with little pain,"

"Is it even life if it doesn't have a lot of pain?" Grover asked. "I mean, things always seemed bad, but they always got better. We've been in bad places, but we always come out on top,"

"When does always run out?"

Grover got up and dragged Percy to the door, where they could see each person. Nico and Will were talking, though with Nico nor knowing how to say no, and Will being arrogant, they started kissing later in. Katie and Travis were both blushing, Travis able to not make Katie blow up, and Katie able to get Travis to calm down. Even Thalia, Conner, and Annabeth seemed to be having a good time as they all laughed.

"Look. It's bad, sure. But look at the good. We're all still a family. It might be a messed-up-patched-together-about-to-fall-apart family, but it's the best thing we got. We might not be normal, and we might be heading on a road to our doom, but at least we have something no one else does,"

"So that's your big hope speech? Look on the bright side?" Percy cracked a small grin. "Thanks G-man,"

"Anytime Perce,"