Revealed

Chapter 12

 Mark yawned and closed his eyes, drifting into a deeper and more peaceful sleep than one he'd had in years. He finally felt safe, if being on a quest could be considered safe. He was with people he trusted, people who would keep him safe. They understood him.

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"And how is the boy?" Mist covered the land, preventing anyone from seeing anything or anyone. "He thinks he is safe." The first voice scoffed. "He will never be safe, no matter how far he runs." "We can always find him." "Indeed. Did you send the eidolon?" "Yes. I dispatched it earlier." "When will it arrive?" "It will reach the boy in about five minutes." "That is.... Satisfactory." "I apologize my Lord, I sent it as soon as possible." "Very well." 

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Mark gasped and shot up, feeling like he'd been dunked in ice water. He drew his blankets tightly around himself, desperately trying to shake off the feeling. He curled into a ball, trying to preserve his body heat. The feeling faded away and he sighed in relief. He yawned and rolled onto his side. He buried his head in the pillow and closed his eyes, sighing again. He drifted back into a peaceful sleep, dismissing the unnerving feeling he had experienced mere moments before. 

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Percy looked around, padded white walls, blinding white lights, tables lined with syringes, scalpels and bottles labeled by number. He was back. Back in the lab. He tried to lift his hands but they were chained to the chair, which looked like something you would find in a dentist's office, not in some evil, millenia old beings lab. It was completely reclined, so that Percy was staring directly at the lights. He tried to kick but his legs were chained as well. He could feel a metal bar across his stomach, stopping him from moving. Someone stepped into the room, they were dressed in a lab coat and safety goggles, they had mousy blonde hair, a screwed up nose and beady brown eyes. They pulled on some plastic gloves, adjusted their safety goggles and walked over to Percy's bedside. "Hello Perseus. My name is Doctor Smith, I'll be looking after you today. As you can tell, after the previous 'incident' we have decided to initiate some safety protocols. Please keep in mind that this is for your safety as much as mine. Now, before we begin there are a few things we must do. Before anything else though, my Lord wishes to speak to you." He pressed a button on the side of the chair and the back raised as he spun slowly to face a mirror that took up one entire wall. As if on cue the mirror rippled and became a window, revealing Order sitting at a desk. "Hello Perseus." The smirk was evident in his voice. "I bet you thought you'd gotten away hm?" Percy stayed silent, glaring at him. His smirk widened. "You can never escape Perseus, I'll always be right beside you." Percy glared harder. "Now, get on with it Smith." The window rippled, returning to its mirror state. Percy's chair spun back around and a brace enclosed his head. Doctor Smith remained expressionless as he began to talk, his voice monotone. "Now Perseus, I know everything about you but you don't know me. So let's start with my story, shall we?" Percy said nothing. "My name is Doctor Alexander Smith. I'm the son of Apollo and I studied  medicine at NRU (New Rome University). After earning my degree I briefly returned home  before leaving to travel the world and learn more about medicine. On my travels I met a great many demigods, none of whom had anything useful to offer to me. Since they couldn't give me any knowledge by word, I decided to take the knowledge. I decided that I wanted to study how demigod bodies worked and responded to certain things. I tested things like ambrosia and nectar overdoses, poison, among other things. After they ingested whatever I'd fed them, I collected the body and began my research. Demigod anatomy and biology is terrifically interesting, especially when you take a look at what's under the skin." Percy swallowed back bile, this man was truly insane. "While studying a particularly interesting case, my Lord came to me. He offered me unlimited knowledge and test subjects, anything I wanted or imagined, the only condition was that I swear my loyalty to him. I took his offer with no hesitation, and have served him faithfully and with no regrets ever since." He clapped his hands together. "That's enough about me, shall we begin?" He stood up and walked to a table in the corner of the room, picked up a large needle and examined it. He smiled in satisfaction before pressing a button to recline the chair. He placed a pair of sunglasses carefully over Percy's eyes before preparing the needle and swabbing an area on Percy's neck with an alcohol wipe. "You won't feel a thing." He smiled again before sticking the needle in and pressing down on the plunger. Black tinted the edge of Percy's vision and the last thing he saw before slipping into unconsciousness was Doctor Smith preparing another needle.

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"Rise and shine Marky boy!" Vine shook him gently.  Mark sat up and yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Morning Jack." "Morning Mark." Vine ruffled the younger boys hair. Mark slapped his hand away and fixed his hair. Mark got up and got ready for the day. He remembered the feeling he'd experienced last night and considered telling one of the others but brushed it off with the excuse that he didn't want to bother them. 

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Percy could barely move, everything hurt. It was worse than yesterday. He forced himself to get up and get ready. He couldn't let the others see that he was hurt. He had to be strong. The nightmares came, after the lab. The same thing as the night before, hours upon hours in the lab, being injected and force fed things. His whole body feeling like it was burning, prickling pain all over his arms and legs, aches in his stomach, splitting headaches and fuzzy eyes, a rapidly pounding heart, numb fingers and toes, nosebleeds and toothaches. After hours Order was finally satisfied and he was allowed to sleep. But then came the nightmares, reliving his worst memories. The week from hell, the period of time between leaving camp and finding Chaos, Tartarus, all the friends he'd lost, all the people he'd failed to save. He relived every death and every war, starting at Bianca's death when he was fourteen and she was twelve, all the way up to the most recent war, the most recent battle, the most recent loss. He would thrash and scream in his sleep, tears streaming down his face, and yet, he would not wake. No matter how hard Bianca tried, she could not wake him, eventually giving up and trying to comfort him by hugging him tightly, holding him as he thrashed and whispering reassurances in his ear. Eventually the nightmares stopped and he woke, tears still streaming down his face. He buried his face in Bianca's shoulder and sobbed. She waited for him to fall asleep again before allowing herself to fall asleep. She also suffered from nightmares, though not as bad as his. Order had poisoned his brain, amplifying his nightmares tenfold. While she was soothed by closeness, the light of day and simple reassurances, his never truly left him. They haunted him, and they always would. 

He could never escape them, no matter how hard he tried.

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A/N: 

I may have to return to updating just on Saturdays, Wednesday is a busy day for me, I have football and therapy, both of which are very tiring. Sorry.

Random stuff happening my life that i dont understand how any of you find it interestingggg

My friend told me that her parents consider me a good influence. What? Like, i'm the opposite of a good influence. sure, im polite to her parents and act sane around them but like im not a good influence at all. 

one of my friends told me they like me. they already knew i liked someone else, but they just wanted to tell me. we're still going to be friends of course, i dont know if i could survive without them, i havent known them long but they were one of the first people i met who really understood me. i feel bad for friend-zoning them but they knew it would happen when they told me so hopefully they're not too upset. One thing i cant stop wondering is why me? out of all the people they know, why me? i could list the reasons why not to like me but this mini story is already getting too long.  

i have this one friend group and when we first met, as far as i knew anyway, we were all cis-het. then one of my friends came out as gay and genderfluid, another came out as pan and non-binary, another friend came out as unlabeled and non-binary, another came out as bi and i came out as well, now theres just one cis-het in our group. oh and we constantly call him a lesbian. 

Peace out! ✌️