Dealing with Drama

Prologue: Part 1

AN: Sooo... how should the naming scheme be? I mean how should I name my chapters? I am thinking of sticking to the original scheme- the book's name is 'Dealing with Drama', so the name schemes can always be alliterating. Like... 'Tying Thalia', or 'Teaching the Twins', or 'A Nervous Nerd'.

Time: Five Years After the Dark Prophecy (ToA)

Life is fleeting.

One moment you are there, the other, you are not.

And we spend most of the precious little time that we have on this planet in strife.

Percy still stared at the spot in disbelief, not fully comprehending what had just transpired.

A war was raging around him, but he could not bring himself to care. The sky was burning, the dark clouds angry and foreboding. The strong breeze that buffeted him, ruffling his shirt and making his messy hair even messier, brought with it a stench of the dead. He could still smell the slight undertone of the fresh invigorating earth that had been there, before the war. The Field of Mars was a fun place, a fun place where you could hang out with the other legionnaires from the 12th Legion, play war games on Fridays, conducting drills on other days. Now it was a blood-soaked battlefield, the field which had been once covered with soft, green grass; soothing to the bare feet, now strewn with dead and dying soldiers of both sides.

Sparks flew up on all sides, the sounds of clashing metal and dying screams ringing out through the battlefield. The dark clouds that shadowed the sky, blocked out the sun, had a silver lining. Percy wanted to laugh at the idea, nothing could have a silver lining now. The bright blue patches of sky that peeked out behind the clouds burned with a ferocious intensity that had Percy shielding his eyes and turning away. His feet sank into the mud, the fertile soil of the Field of Mars running red with blood, seeping into the soil and making it a bloody, sticky sludge.

For once, Percy felt overwhelmed. He cowered behind the fortified wall, even as the fighting carried on around him, not looking the part of a heroic demigod.

It was just... too much for him.

The ringing in his ears, the stench in his nostrils, the burn in his muscles. He squeezed his eyes shut, embracing the dark sanctuary of his broken, shattered mind. The more he tried not to think of the chaotic world outside, the more he became conscious of the mud beneath his feet, the flecks of blood, cool and repulsive, on his face.

Percy wondered about death, what happened after one died. Being Greek, he thought that after death, one went to Hades to await judgement. He knew it better than most, having visited the Underworld himself. But he still thought.... how did it feel to know you are not alive? To know you are just a memory, helpless to do anything to influence the world? Percy wasn't sure if he would like that.

Some mortals said God happened after death. God with a capital G, the omnipotent, benevolent being, not the immortal, morally retarded beings that passed for God to the Greeks. They said God watched over all, that God stood for love, and forgiveness. Personally, Percy wasn't so sure, after seeing the Greek goddess of Love.

Percy hadn't felt love until she came along. A beautiful blonde with stormy grey eyes that had judo flipped him over her shoulder. He had his mother sure, but whatever parental love she gave was outweighed by the abuse he suffered as a child at his step-father's hands. He knew he shouldn't blame his mother for that, and he didn't- she had been his beacon of light during the darkest times of his life- but he couldn't help but feel a bit neglected from her part. It wasn't really Sally's fault, between all the jobs that she worked to make ends meet, he supposed she couldn't really take time out for him.